As the first month of 2024 came to a close this week, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles issued what LGBTQ advocates called “a surprise memo” that eliminates existing process by which transgender residents can update their Florida driver’s with appropriate gender markers.
Representatives from Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund issued the following joint statement in response:
“The DeSantis administration has once again targeted the transgender community with another unprecedented attack. This time, the DeSantis administration is seeking to deny legal recognition to tens of thousands of transgender Floridians who will need to update their state-issued ID in the coming years. This policy was finalized with ZERO public notice or input in order to inflict as much harm as possible. There is no bottom to how low they will go.
“Drivers’ licenses are essential, government-issued identity documents necessary to navigate daily life for all. People need accurate ID to open a bank account, to move through TSA security and to vote. With this cruel and arbitrary move, the DeSantis administration’s obsession with transgender Floridians has escalated in an outrageous attack that further erodes freedom and liberty in the Sunshine State.
“This hateful and reckless move, done secretly with no public input, is intended solely to make the transgender community feel unsafe and unwelcome in Florida and to bully them out of public life. It comes as part of a concerted and coordinated effort nationwide to harm transgender people, as we have seen in violence directed at medical centers providing care towards transgender Georgians and through the leaked audio from Michigan and Ohio about strategies to ban medical care for transgender adults.
“But transgender people have always existed and will always exist, and they will keep fighting for equality, regardless of any actions taken by this mean-spirited administration. We will fight alongside them, and we are evaluating with our partners nationally and in Florida possible next steps.”
— Tammye Nash
