SACRAMENTO — In a significant milestone for transgender rights, California legislators on Thursday introduced a bill that would make the Golden State the first in the nation to create a third gender marker on its driver’s licenses, birth certificates and state IDs.

The Gender Recognition Act of 2017 would add “non-binary” to male and female on official state documents and make it easier for transgender people to change them.

The proposed legislation is another example of California’s growing culture clash with the Republican-controlled Congress and many of the nation’s red states, which are embroiled in an emotional debate over gender politics.

Transgender and civil rights activists cheered the new bill, saying it could make a profound difference in the daily lives and safety of those who don’t identify as a man or women — or to the gender they were assigned at birth. They say the new designation could prevent transgender people from being ostracized at everything from traffic stops to supermarket checkouts to nightclubs.

“It’s a daily minefield of navigating society,” said Tiffany Woods, a transgender woman who started the TransVision clinic in Fremont. In addition to primary care, the organization offers free assistance with legal name and gender changes.

Opposition to the bill has yet to emerge. Several Republican lawmakers contacted about the bill declined to weigh in or did not reply for requests to comment.

As some red states try to limit transgender rights, California is heading in the opposite direction. LGBT advocates say the timing of the bill is crucial, as they wait to see if President Donald Trump will undo some of the protections that former President Barack Obama put in place for those who don’t have traditional gender identities, such as directing schools to allow students to use the bathrooms of their choice.

“It’s even more of a reason for California to lead the way on these issues and to move forward in recognizing people from marginalized communities as full and complete members of society, which is unfortunately not happening in many other states and something that is at risk at the federal level,” said Jo Michael, legislative manager for Equality California, an LGBT rights group co-sponsoring the bill.

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Woods recalled the terror she felt during a traffic stop years ago on a remote stretch of Interstate 5. She was alone, and one of her IDs still had a male name on it.

“Want to talk about stressing and trying to explain when there’s a male name and a female name?” she said.

Senate Bill 179 was introduced by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, who previously advanced a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2013 that allows transgender people to change their names and gender designations without a court order. The Gender Recognition Act is co-sponsored by eight other Democratic lawmakers, including the Senate leader, Kevin de Leon, and Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco.

In addition to adding a third-gender designation, the bill would further simplify the process for transgender people to make changes to state documents — changes that still require a court appearance and a sworn statement from a physician certifying that they received medical treatment during their transition. Under the proposed changes, California would no longer require a doctor’s sign-off for such changes, and would require court appearances only if a petition were challenged.

Helping people get IDs that match their gender identity will keep them safer, said Sasha Buchert, staff attorney and policy counsel for the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center, who said the presentation of a mismatched ID “just creates a really ripe opportunity for people to experience harassment and discrimination.”

“Hopefully we’re working toward a day,” Buchert said, “where we don’t have gender markers on our documents at all.”