His new student ID says ‘Lightning-Kachow-McQ.’ That hurts trans students, some say

At first, it may have seemed like a harmless joke to Tyler Roope.

Roope, a student at UCLA, tweeted that he changed the name on his student ID to “Lightning-Kachow-McQ.”

He was able to do that because of a new policy at the school, which allows students to put their preferred name on the front of their BruinCards, according to the Daily Bruin.

“The boundaries had to be tested and I can't believe this actually worked,” he tweeted out with a picture of his old and updated ID cards, as well as an email notifying him about the change. “My professors now legally have to call me this.”

“Kachow boys,” he ended his tweet, seemingly referencing a tagline of the main character of the “Cars” movie, Lightning McQueen.

Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh, president of UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association Council, told the Daily Bruin that the disconnect between one’s preferred name and legal name “is an issue faced by many transgender and international students on campus.”

And that’s why many took to Twitter to call out Roope, arguing that his quirky name change is far from funny — and instead hurts transgender students.

But not everyone understands why it’s a big deal. To them, Roope was just trying to be humorous.

Roope, who originally wrote “this literally impacts nothing and I’m sorry you’re offended,” later took to Twitter to apologize.

As more transgender people continue to come out and live openly, there has been growing conversation over how to make ID cards and official documents more inclusive of different identities.

According to Campus Pride, there are 249 colleges and universities that allow students to use their chosen names — instead of their legal ones — on official campus documents.

In June, Washington, D.C., started issuing gender-neutral driver’s licenses and ID cards that allowed residents to identify as a third gender outside of the male-female binary options, The Washington Post reported. The following month, Oregon became the first state to allow people to have a non-gendered ID or license, NBC News reported.

California passed a similar law earlier this month, which will also enable its residents to select a third gender option starting next September, Business Insider reported.

This story was originally published October 28, 2017 at 7:14 AM with the headline "His new student ID says ‘Lightning-Kachow-McQ.’ That hurts trans students, some say."