He had to remove his make-up in order to get a driver's license photo. So Chase Culpepper, 16, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for denying it to him.

This South Carolina boy is being backed by the Transgender Defence and Education Fund (TLDEF), which filed the suit on his behalf.

Unable to understand why he was being denied what he wanted, Chase told news.com

that he was always dressed in "that manner". Whether he went to school or to his workplace, he would wear the same clothes every time, though the officials have charged him with being in "disguise".

If a police officer had to identify him, then should his picture not match his appearance, he asked. How could he be said to be "disguised", then?

Humiliated, Chase said that he was in "complete shock." He was permitted to get his license photo taken only after he washed and rubbed off his make-up.

However, the DMV pointed out that it was important that the photo should legally show who the person is. "His ID says that he is male ... he needs to look like a male," DMV spokeswoman Beth Parks said to news.com

. After all, the agency cannot permit him to be shot with make-up, because a policy does not let him shoot license photos when he is "purposefully altering his or her appearance".

His mother Teresa Culpepper, who has brought the suit, is planning to knock on the courts with the charge that by not giving him the liberty to don his make-up in his license photo, the court was displaying sex discrimination and violating "his right to free speech and expression under the United States Constitution," according to a press release from TLDEF, reports Fox Carolina.

She also added that they were seeking a ruling under the U.S. and South Carolina Constitutions accusing the DMV's photo policy to be "unconstitutionally vague, too broad, and lets DMV employees arbitrarily decide how a driver's licence applicant should look, without regard for the rights of the people they are supposed to serve."

She explained to Fox Carolina that she was "angry, upset, heartbroken" that the government was ordering her son to live up to the image of what a man should look like.

TLDEGF's executive director, Michael Silverman, was clear that there was no other instance of the DMV not agreeing to take anyone's license photo merely based on make-up.