Friday's cover of the has an absolute cracker of a story on it with an admittedly brilliant headline of "PUT THE CAR IN (GENDER) NEUTRAL".
The is concerned with, as the Courier Mail describes it, the "peak PC madness" of Queensland removing gender and height from driver's licences in an "anti-discrimination" push.
And it's true! Queensland did make the decision to remove gender and height from the personal information included alongside photo identification... in October of 2016.
On the , the personal information recorded on licences is clearly displayed, showing clearly the date that gender and height were no longer recorded.
The change has been chalked up to "political correctness", with Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington calling the move in 2016 "offensive to taxpayers" and a waste of money, despite the change simply meaning the information has not been displayed on licences since 2016.
A screenshot from the Queensland Government website. Source: https://www.qld.gov.au
Applications for a licence still requires Queenslanders to nominate which gender they identify with, the information is just simply not recorded on the card itself.
Despite the fact that the changes were in effect throughout 2017, the Mail has blasted the decision, referring to an internal document which pins the change on the LGBTI+ community.
The organisation's tweets about the decision omit the fact that this is not a new change, but rather emphasises the role the LGBTQI+ community may have played. This comes despite a spokesperson for the QLD Government saying changes to federal legislation and improvements in technology were the drivers of the change.
*since 2016. Source: Twitter @couriermail
"And they say it is only about marriage equality," one comment on the article reads, with another saying "I am exceptional [sic] offended right now. I am a male and I want it shown on my license [sic], period. By not showing it you are discriminating again [sic] my gender, not happy!"
As the old adage says, you should never read the comments, still you can read the full story at the Mail .
Queenslanders who would prefer to have a licence that doesn't display gender or height can apply for a replacement and have been able to... since 2016.
