Transgender Floridians Protest Against Revocation of Gender Marker Changes on Driver’s Licenses
Transgender Floridians staged die-ins on Friday across the state at Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) locations in opposition to the recent decision that revoked the right to change gender markers on driver’s licenses.
Legal scholar Alejandra Caraballo sent X a letter that was leaked from the FLHSMV on January 31. Florida had recently ended its policy of allowing people to change driver’s license gender markers, according to the letter, which was written by FLHSMV assistant executive director Robert Kynoch and dated January 26. Furthermore, according to the leaked letter, changing one’s legal gender in a way that conflicts with the birth sex is illegal and could result in criminal penalties. Eventually, the note was obtained by media outlets like CNN, which verified its authenticity.
Individuals in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Gainesville protested at their respective FLHSMV spots on February 9 out of anger over the legislation. The demonstrators held their die-ins for 37 minutes, according to the LGBTQ+ publication Watermark in Central Florida. According to data from the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey, that portion of Floridians who presented an ID that was inconsistent with their gender presentation experienced adverse consequences.
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Demonstrators are seen lying on the ground, draped in transgender flags, holding banners shaped like coffins in video footage from one protest posted to X by PRISM FL, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group in South Florida. The posters feature phrases like “killed by DMV,” “Muerte por DeSantis” (death by DeSantis), and “El DMV de la Florida me mató.”
Lana Dunn, a transgender activist who had recently changed her name officially, expressed her frustration with the policy shift to Watermark. To make that happen, Dunn told the publication, “I had to go through lawyers, court, and absolute hoops.” “Only to reach this point and get discouraged from changing my gender marker to reflect who I truly am.” That is extremely offensive and insulting.
Watermark added that the protest’s objective was to prompt citizens of the nation to write to the White House and request federal government intervention. PRISM FL shared an email campaign that sends a pre-written message to the Department of Justice in an earlier article to X.
The state legislature is debating House Bill 1639, a bill that would effectively outlaw trans people from changing the gender indicator on their driver’s license and other forms of identification, in order to solidify the FLHSMV policy.
