Florida bans gender identity from driver’s licenses
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida rescinded a rule that allowed residents to change their driver’s license gender notation to correspond with an “internal sense of gender role or identity,” according to a memo obtained by Florida’s Voice.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, blew the whistle on the change this week.
“This is another gross example of how every state agency has been weaponizes to attack trans people. Instead of addressing the property insurance crisis, this is what our state is doing,” Eskamani said. “Shameful.”
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Deputy Director Robert Kynoch wrote to all state county tax collectors that licenses can no longer be reissued for the purpose of reflecting one’s gender identity, arguing that policy hampered “the state’s ability to enforce its laws.”
“Permitting an individual to alter his or her license to reflect an internal sense of gender role or identity, which is neither immutable nor objectively verifiable, undermines the purpose of an identification record,” the letter said.
The department wrote that replacement licenses are only allowed when it is lost, stolen, or if there are changes to the person’s name or address.
“The term ‘gender’ […] does not refer to a person’s internal sense of his or her gender role or identification,” it said. “[It] has historically and commonly been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics.”
The letter said that keeping licensees’ classification in line with their immutable characteristics is important because of the license’s “critical role in assisting public and private entities in correctly establishing the identity of a person presenting the license.”
Bryan Griffin, press secretary for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political team, called the action “the right move.”
“Government should not affirm radical, anti-truth ideologies like ‘gender fluidity,'” Griffin said.
Florida lawmakers are also considering legislation requiring biological sex on driver’s licenses.
