MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — A transgender woman was arrested after she exposed her breasts in public in a protest against a local driver’s license office that refused to accept her surgeon’s letter confirming her partial surgery and her Social Security status as a woman.
The Social Security Administration recognizes Jones as a woman and she is treated as such under federal statues. However, the Tennessee Department of Safety — which oversees issuance of driver’s licenses — told WATE-TV in Knoxville that they would only change the sex on a license “if an applicant presents a doctor’s statement indicating that a full sex change has occurred and the procedure is complete.”
Get the Daily Brief
The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you:
“It’s not right for the state to ask me to be both male and female. A choice needs to be made. They cannot hold me to both standards,” Jones told the station in an interview. “What I had was a statement from a surgeon saying I no longer had my testicles,” she added.
Angered by the response from the Department of Motor Vehicle’s staff, Jones said she decided to make a statement by taking her shirt off in the parking lot.
Article continues below
“If I was a male, I had the right to, when I stepped out the door, take off my shirt,” Jones explained.
A court date has been set for December 20 on the charge of indecent exposure.
