In a planned opposition against the state’s latest attempt to prevent gender changes on driver’s licenses, about ten people staged ‘die-ins’ in Orlando on Friday. They joined activists in five different Florida cities who laid down at DMV offices and pretended to be dead.
The PRISM, a nonprofit founded by South Florida high school students in 2019 to increase affirming places and resources for LGBTQ+ children, organized the protests.
According to Maxx Fenning, the founder and executive chairman of PRISM, a “die-in” tends to be purposefully melancholy and quiet, in contrast to other types of protests, which are frequently loud.
Fenning remarked, “Sometimes the point is the silence.” It is intended to be a very visually effective way to highlight the fatalities caused by these choices and to draw attention to the harm and danger.
Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) issued a memo late last month prohibiting Floridians from changing the gender marker on their driver’s licenses, which led to the statewide demonstrations on Friday.
The letter overturns earlier instructions that company personnel had formerly received to permit sex changes on Florida vehicle’s licenses. According to the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a progressive nonprofit, Florida and Kansas are currently the only two U.S. states that forbid such updates.
Duerig Molly/News from WMFE. On February 9, 2024, six “die out” protests were staged outside Florida DMV offices, and transgender rights activists in Orlando took part in one of them.Jude Speegle, 29, of Volusia County, said, “It feels terrible to know that there are individuals today in Florida who will not be able to achieve that step for their transition.” Think how it would affect your mental health if people would not really understand who you are.
Speegle described it as a very personal choice and claimed that he changed his lawful name and identity marker last year to reflect his gender identity.
“It’s never intended for anyone else. Speegle said, “It was for me. ” It wasn’t done for the state, the government, or the purpose of making a point.” I did it for myself.
However, Molly Best, the director of communications at FLHSMV, stated in a written statement to WMFE News that in order to apply for the driver’s license, acceptable identification documentation must be provided, including biological sex.
“You cannot engage in identification politics with your driver’s license in Florida,” according to Best. “On a recently issued Florida token, guided by s. 322.08, F. S., no changes have been made to the process of establishing identity.”
However, according to Robert Kynoch, Deputy Executive Director of FLHSMV, “misrepresenting one’s identity, understood as intercourse, on a driver license constitutes fraud and can result in criminal and civil penalties,” in his memo from January 26.
Best did not directly answer to WMFE when asked what the shift means for Floridians who have already changed the gender marker on their driver’s license in accordance with the prior guidance, merely stating that the earlier guidance is certainly supported by legal authority.
Florida lawmakers are currently debating a House proposal (HB 1639) that would codify the most recent agency memo by mandating that licenses reflect the person’s sex on the basis of “naturally occurring sexual hormones, internal and external genitalia present at birth.”
FLHSMV’s new memo is the most recent in a series of assaults on LGBTQ+ people in Florida, according to Mulan Williams, who will be taking part in Orlando for the die-out on Friday.
Williams claimed that she founded Divas in Dialogue a number of years ago in an effort to assist younger generations in avoiding suffering as much as she did during her own transition.
“We’ve come a long way, the transgender community and the queer community.” However, there have been so many strikes against us recently, Williams said. “It’s unfair, we’re not going to stand for it, and we won’t allow it to happen. Simply put, we’re not.”
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