Here’s how many Californians chose to identify as nonbinary on driver’s licenses or ID cards since 2019

Nearly 16,000 Californians have identified themselves as nonbinary on their driver’s licenses and state identification cards since the state opened up a third option in 2019, according to reports.

Since the Gender Recognition Act went into effect, 15,904 Californians have asked for and received a license or ID card with the gender marked as “X” as opposed to “M” or “F,” according to data obtained from the California Department of Motor Vehicles by the Sacramento Bee.

Younger Californians were disproportionately represented among those using a gender neutral designation, with 10,340 of those opting for the “X” gender between the ages of 16 and 29, according to the data. More than 14,000 of those who chose to identify as nonbinary were under 40.

Only seven people over the age of 80 chose to identify as nonbinary on their IDs.

The Gender Recognition Act was signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017, making California the second state in the country, after Oregon, to offer a third gender category on licenses or identification cards. The law went into effect in 2019. The law also made it possible for Californians to have their nonbinary status reflected on their birth certificates and made it easier for nonbinary, transgender and intersex state residents to apply to courts and state agencies for a gender change.

The law eliminated the requirement that a physician must write a letter saying that a person was undergoing medical gender transition treatment to apply for a nonbinary designation on their license. Now, people can apply for a status change on their word alone.