A social media memo suggests that transgender Florida residents may lose their licenses due to changes in their gender markers.
Source: The New York Times
Transgender Driver Licenses: According to a memo posted on social media, transgender Florida residents could lose their licenses for changing their gender markers.
In a screenshot on X, formerly Twitter, deputy executive director Robert Kynoch stated that supporting documents determine the gender of newly issued Florida drivers licenses.
In his opinion, under Florida law, the documents must be sufficient to establish the identity of the applicant. Furthermore, misrepresenting one’s gender on a driver’s license constitutes fraud as defined in Section 322,212, F.S., and may result in criminal and civil penalties, including cancellation, suspension, or revocation of the driver’s license.”
Republican lawmakers and Governor Ron DeSantis have targeted transgender rights in Florida, including limiting pronoun usage in schools and banning gender-affirming care for minors. Other Republican-led states are also adopting new laws aimed at promoting LGBTQ+ rights.
Kynoch’s memo states that the department has revoked the requirement that employees issue new licenses to licensees changing gender markers. Changing the name, address, or restrictions of a licensee can result in a replacement license only when it is lost or stolen.
As Kynoch points out, gender is different from ‘sex,’ which is an innate and unchanging biological characteristic.
Consequently, the driver’s license serves as an identification document and assists public and private entities in accurately identifying a person. Changing licenses reflects an internal sense of gender identity or role that is neither immutable nor objectively verifiable.
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Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, shared the memo. The authorities may suspend the licenses of transgender individuals if they alter their documents. They can prosecute anyone who tries to change these documents afterwards for ‘fraud.’
Taking Caraballo’s directive at face value could lead to criminal charges being filed against trans people. It may also apply to tourists who drive in the state.”
According to Caraballo, “This is a massive and intrusive change eradicating legal recognition and criminalizing transgender people in the state.”
Newsweek has contacted Caraballo via direct message on X. Kynoch received a contact via email.
Florida’s House Select Committee on Health Innovation approved a bill that requires licenses to display a licensee’s birth sex.
Florida has 16,200 transgender children aged 13-17 and 94,900 transgender adults, according to UCLA Williams Institute reports in 2022.
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