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South Dakota is reportedly set to enforce a policy that will make it impossible for trans people in the state to update the gender marker on their driver’s license. However, the policy has not yet been enacted, meaning trans people may still have a small window to update their gender markers.

There are currently ten states that bar trans people from obtaining an accurate driver’s license. Some have passed laws that strictly forbid gender correction for licenses under any circumstances; others have created policies that rely on other restrictions to do the job, such as requiring an amended birth certificate in a state where one cannot be legally obtained.

The South Dakota drivers’ license policy is set to mimic the second option. In March, South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden (R) signed HB 1184, which banned legal recognition of trans identities by defining “sex” as “an individual’s biological sex, either male or female.” The law restricted trans people from updating their birth certificates. It was also signed less than a month after the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that a trans woman could not update her birth certificate and neither could other trans people born in the state.

However, it wasn’t clear exactly how that law and ruling would impact drivers’ licenses. While an amended birth certificate could be used to update the gender marker on a license, it was not the only method.

The previous rules allowed gender markers to be updated based on an amended birth certificate, passport, or a court order, combined with either a court order certifying someone’s gender change or “a letter from a physician stating that the applicant is undergoing gender reassignment care (such as hormone replacement therapy),” as Equaldex explained. While the requirement for a doctor to sign off on gender-affirming care is a large hurdle, the restrictions are still looser than in some states, which require surgery before updating gender markers.

After a public records request was denied, Aleksandra Vaca of Transitics contacted employees at the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS), who issue drivers’ licenses for the state. She was told that a policy was updated on July 1^st to require applicants for a gender change to provide an amended birth certificate. That is no longer possible to obtain, and so the policy will prevent trans people born in South Dakota or other states that refuse to issue corrected birth certificates from updating their drivers’ licenses unless they already have an updated birth certificate.

But the policy isn’t being implemented yet. The DPS employees told Vaca they are waiting to “get word” from their superiors before starting enforcement.

There’s no telling how soon that might happen, but in the meantime, there remains a potential window for trans people in South Dakota. While some states, such as Kansas, retroactively revoked the licenses of trans drivers with practically no notice period, there’s no indication that the South Dakota policy would do the same.

South Dakota has moved forward with these policies despite evidence of flaws in the system and the harm they cause trans people (having an ID that does not match the way someone presents could out them in situations where it’s dangerous). Last month, a trans woman was charged for not having a valid license because the officer didn’t believe the male gender marker on her ID. The charges were eventually dropped.

As with Wyoming’s ban on updating gender markers on drivers’ licenses, this policy has been crafted without any fanfare, suggesting the point is to harm trans people rather than to score political points.