In a rare step illustrating the utterly cruel anti-trans laws being passed by Republican legislatures, the entire Florida Democratic Congressional Delegation wrote a letter urging the Biden Administration to protect transgender Floridians who are about to lose the right to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses and state ID’s through the use of the Real ID Act, and to start considering pushing back against the over one THOUSAND anti-trans bills currently moving their way through Republican-led legislatures.
From Erin in the Morning:
The letter is in response to two measures in Florida aimed at prohibiting the alteration of gender markers on driver’s licenses and criminalizing transgender individuals. Earlier this week, the state announced it would cease allowing changes to driver’s license gender markers, asserting that any transgender person “misrepresenting” their gender on their license could be guilty of criminal fraud, facing potential license suspension or revocation. Concurrently, a bill progressing through the Florida Legislature seeks to ban driver’s license gender marker changes and would mandate health insurance coverage for conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy has been scientifically debunked as an effective treatment for gender dysphoria and/or homosexuality and is often considered torture by scientific authorities. It has led to severe trauma, depression, homelessness, anxiety, drug use, and suicide.
The changes prompted immediate speculation that the federal Real ID Act, enacted by Republicans in 2005, might protect transgender individuals in states attempting to ban driver’s license changes. This is because the federal requirements for state IDs include listing “gender.” The Biden administration could employ various methods to ensure compliance with the Real ID Act, mandating that states allow transgender people to list their gender on their driver’s licenses. These methods could include initiating a rulemaking process or declaring Florida out of compliance.
Florida is obviously not alone in mandating cruelty and erasure of the transgender community through legal means as Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds has introduced House Study Bill 649:
Thursday afternoon, Gov. Kim Reynolds submitted House Study Bill 649, a bill with sweeping provisions targeting the transgender community. The bill would end all legal recognition of transgender people, mandating that “sex” refers to someone’s assigned sex at birth in all Iowa code. It also would spell out new requirements for gender marker changes in official documents. Rather than allowing transgender or intersex people to change their gender markers on driver’s licenses and birth certificates, it would restrict those changes only to those who have a letter from a “doctor and surgeon” showing that the “sex designation has changed.” Even more troubling for transgender and intersex individuals: those who are approved for the change would be forced to list both gender markers on their driver’s license.
By changing the gender requirements on state-issued ID cards America faces a situation where travel becomes almost impossible for transgender Americans who may have one gender listed on their Federal-issued passports and another on their state-issued ID cards. Trans Americans will also face being outed whenever they are required to show ID, such as during the purchase of alcohol, using a credit card, or entering a night club.
Laws attacking transgender people also create a situation where bathroom use becomes literally illegal in states that are airline hubs, such as Utah where a recent bill mandating criminal charges for any transgender individual using a bathroom matching their gender identity.
Democratic legislatures, on the other hand, are proposing rules that turn their states into sanctuaries for trans people fleeing Republican oppression, although Democrats in Maine recently voted down their Trans Refuge Law in response to right wing threats.
The public is largely unaware of the efforts Republicans are going to in order to erase the transgender community, however in Iowa hundreds of people showed up to protest and speak out against a recent bill that proposed stripping CIVIL RIGHTS PROTECTIONS of all transgender Iowans. That bill was ultimately defeated.
With hundreds outside, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Jeff Shipley, began with an incendiary tirade against transgender people, labeling transgender women as “creepy old men.” He argued that removing transgender individuals from civil rights protections was retribution for protests against Chloe Cole speaking in Iowa City. He stated, “I seriously question if this pattern of conduct is conducive to the generous protections afforded under Iowa Code 216.” Cynthia Yockey, his primary witness, then claimed that allowing transgender women in bathrooms would lead to them spreading bodily fluids in stalls and sexually assaulting children.
Yet again Republicans project their sick fantasies upon marginalized communities. And should Donald Trump somehow prevail, the latest fascist policy proposals under Project 2025 call for the legal erasure of the ENTIRE transgender community across the nation. Should Republicans somehow prevail, anti-trans bathroom laws, anti-trans sports laws, and anti-trans ID laws WILL become Federal policy. And Republicans are now openly stating that their endgame literally IS the erasure of the entire trans community.
And the mainstream media is doing us no favors by either ignoring these plans or spreading their own falsehoods such as this Misleading NYT Anti-Trans Article By Pamela Paul that spreads dangerous propaganda used by TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminsts).
After that I’m sure the pink triangles will appear yet again. It goes without saying that laws targeting transgender individuals are BLATANTLY unconstitutional and many are being fought in court by the ACLU and other human rights organizations. Because ultimately trans rights ARE human rights.
