Florida barring gender changes on driver's license puts trans residents at risk, critics say

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/30/florida-
transgender-drivers-license-change/72409088007/

Transgender Floridians can no longer change the listed gender on their
driver licenses.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles quietly
announced the change in a memo late last week sent to county tax
collectors, where state residents can get licenses.

Previously, Florida residents could change their gender marker by
submitting either a court order for a name change or an official
physicians letter for proof of gender transition treatment, according to
the National Center for Transgender Equality.

NCTE spokesperson Ash Orr, who uses he or they pronouns, said the new ban
adds to Florida's long list of harmful policies that target the
transgender people.

"Access to identity documents is crucial in daily life, impacting
activities like work, voting, travel, and engagement with government
institutions," Orr said in a Tuesday statement. "Ensuring everyone,
including transgender people, have accurate official documents, such as
driver's licenses, is vital for upholding our institutional rights."

Florida issues driver's license memo as similar bill moves in state
legislature
Florida DHSMV's deputy executive director Robert Kynoch said in the memo
that someone "misrepresenting" their gender, meaning not using their sex
assigned at birth, constitutes "criminal and civil" fraud.

"Permitting an individual to alter his or her license to reflect an
internal sense of gender role or identity, which is neither immutable nor
objectively verifiable, undermines the purpose of an identification record
and can frustrate the state’s ability to enforce its laws," the memo
states.

The department separately issued a statement saying, in part, that the
move was begun by executive director Dave Kerner, who "tasked senior
Department leadership with ensuring our policies, procedures, and
technical guidance/advisories were consistent with both statutory law and
the Department’s inherent authority.

"... Expanding the Department’s authority to issue replacement licenses
dependent on one’s internal sense of gender or sex identification is
violative of the law and does not serve to enhance the security and
reliability of Florida issued licenses and identification cards. The
security, reliability, and accuracy of government issued credentials is
paramount," it adds.

The memo comes as state Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill requiring
driver's licenses to display the carrier's sex at birth rather than their
gender identity.

The Florida DHSMV's policy change drew criticism from state Democrats.
"Florida Republicans’ obsession with trans people has to stop,” said
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. “We’ve seen state agencies
continually weaponized under Ron DeSantis, and this rule change at DHSMV
serves the same purpose as the rest — allowing right-wing extremists to
get the wildly unpopular policies they want without having to go on the
record as voting for them.”

Florida joins states with barriers to gender marker changes on driver's
licenses
Florida joins Kansas in fully banning transgender residents from updating
their gender markers on their driver's licenses. In Kansas, a temporary
order is in place banning changes while an ongoing legal battle between
the Kansas Department of Revenue and the Republican attorney general plays
out to determine whether that policy will stick, the Associated Press
reported.

Data compiled by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a non-profit
think tank researching LGBTQ-related policies, shows that the following
states require proof of surgery, a court order, or an amended birth
certificate to permit changes to their gender on a driver's license. These
are considered to have "negative laws", which are burdensome requirements
that may prevent people from being able to make the change at all,
according to MAP and NCTE.

Georgia
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
MAP spokesperson Rebecca Farmer said that Montana has passed new
legislation defining sex that is narrow and prevents people from changing
their driver's license's gender markers, even though there is no specific
law is on the books for it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/30/florida-
transgender-drivers-license-change/72409088007/

--
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