The Huffington Post published an article featuring ACLU of Illinois plaintiff Lauren Grey who helped win a victory for transgender Illinoisans in the case of Grey v. Hasbrouck. This landmark lawsuit made it possible for transgender Illinoisans to be able to change the gender marker on their birth certificates without without undergoing unnecessary, costly and potentially dangerous sex reassignment surgery. Illinois is presently one of about half of all U.S. states to allow gender designation revisions to birth certificates -- a process that makes it possible for one to obtain driver's licenses and other official documents that reflect the individual's accurate gender.

Lauren Grey didn't think much about the gender recorded on her Illinois driver's license until she went to test-drive a new car. Although she had been living as a woman for months and easily obtained a license with her new name and a picture reflecting her feminine appearance, Grey's ID still identified her as male, puzzling the salesmen and prompting uncomfortable questions.

"They are like, `This doesn't match.' Then you have to go into the story: `I was born male, but now I'm not,'" said Grey, 38, a graphic designer living in suburban Chicago. "And they are like, `What does that mean?' It was super embarrassing." Similarly awkward conversations ensued when she tried to rent an apartment, went to bars or was taken out of airport security lines for inspection.

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