TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Transgender individuals could soon have a harder time getting official documents to match their gender. A proposal in the Florida House would require someone’s biological sex to appear on their driver’s license.
Dozens of people rallied outside the Florida House of Representatives Tuesday to speak against that bill and 20 others filed in the Florida Legislature that they say target the LGBTQ community, specifically people who are transgender.
“Yeah, I lost of all of my health care. I lost my doctors, I lost my access to my medication. But because my community is not weak, because we don’t back down, I got it all back,” Angelique Godwin, who is transgender, said.
Godwin was one of thousands of people who had to figure out how to get hormone medication after changes were made to state law last year. This year, a proposal would prevent her and other transgender Floridians from changing the sex on their driver’s licenses. She said she feels this proposal is another way to erase people like her from the state.
But state Rep. Dean Black, (R) Jacksonville, said he filed the bill because safety is his primary concern.
“We need law enforcement officers to know what they are dealing with. If you can go change your gender on your driver’s license on a whim, that can actually endanger law enforcement,” Black said.
Black’s proposal also would require health insurers that do cover gender-affirming care to cover reversal care if needed.
“Because now suddenly rings in the land and I’m trying to reaffirm what we’ve known to be essentially truth from time and memorial,” Black said.
Republicans also filed bills in the House and Senate that would put restrictions on government agencies using personal pronouns.
The Williams Institute at UCLA found there are nearly 95,000 people who are transgender living in Florida.
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