Florida blocks gender changes on driver’s licenses

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced people can no longer change the listed gender on their driver’s licenses.

“It definitely is something that is devastating and feels cruel and manipulative,” said Queen Victoria Ortega. “It’s a thinly veiled attempt to show off for a base of voters that are seeking blood.”

On top of that, the memo states people “misrepresenting” their gender or not using their sex assigned at birth constitutes “criminal and civil” fraud.

“They could be arrested for that: not having a valid driver’s license that represents who they are. It can keep them from voting; it can keep them from getting a job,” said Chris Schmeckpeper-Kobzina with GLSEN Collier (the Collier County Chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network).

“Our trans community has demonstrated that time and time again; we’re not going anywhere,” said Otega. “We are powerful, and we’re capable, and we are just as American as anybody else.”

Queen Victoria Ortega is the international president of FLUX, a group that aims to raise the profile of trans and nonbinary people and a national division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

“Many of us are veterans. We’ve earned our space in the fabric of America by laying down our lives for the freedom that everybody else lives,” said Ortega, “so we deserve that, in turn, to be able to be who we are and have our identifications in our driver’s license reflect that.”

Before, Florida residents could change their gender marker by submitting either a court order for a name change or an official physician’s letter for proof of gender transition treatment.

“I’m a transgender man. If you look at me, it would be evident that I am a man,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director for the National Center for Transgender Equality. “The name that I actually go by is Rodrigo … that is what everyone in my life knows me as. If I, as a born and raised Floridian, have a driver’s license that does not list the name Rodrigo, it is completely impractical.”

Legislation HB 1639 would also require all insurance and health benefit plans in the state that cover trans-related health care to cover de-transition care. That means discontinuing or seeking to reverse gender-affirming medical or surgical interventions.

“I think it’s extremely damaging in so many ways, mentally, physically health-wise, for a portion of our population, and of the LGBTQ+ community here in Florida,” said Hugh Clark.

Clark is chair of the social work department at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“It is major disenfranchisement of a population that already faces tons of barriers,” Clark said. “It is the end of the ability for someone to be who they are, and that is troubling. I think Florida just keeps moving backwards in terms of understanding human beings and human nature.”

Florida joins Kansas in fully banning residents from updating their gender markers on their driver’s licenses. In Kansas, a temporary order is in place banning changes while an ongoing legal battle between the Kansas Department of Revenue and the Republican attorney general plays out to determine whether that policy will stick.