Jan. 31 (UPI) — Florida is banning transgender people from changing their gender on their driver’s licenses in a new rule to protect the “security and reliability” of government issued identification.
The new rule, which is not part of any state law, was enacted by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
“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 and can frustrate the state’s ability to enforce its laws,” Robert Kynoch, FLHSMV deputy executive director wrote in a memo Friday.
The memo warns anyone “misrepresenting” their gender assigned at birth will face “criminal and civil penalties,” which could include the suspension or revocation of their driver’s license.
A number of Florida Democrats were quick to condemn the new rule as the “criminalization of trans people.”
“This is another gross example of Gov. Ron DeSantis weaponizing every state agency for his cruel agenda of attacking trans people,” state Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said in a statement.
“We will continue to fight back against attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and are seeking clarity from colleagues and attorneys on how community members should move forward,” Eskamani added.
The new rule requires people to prove their biological sex using “supporting documents” in order to obtain a driver’s license.
“The term ‘gender’ does not refer to a person’s internal sense of his or her gender role or identification, but has historically and commonly been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics,” the FLHSMV memo states. “County tax collectors must use a person’s supporting documents to establish their gender identity.”
“Are you going to check people’s genitals?” Eskamani queried, as Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried demanded “Florida Republicans’ obsession with trans people has to stop.”
“Instead of addressing our raging property insurance crisis or out-of-control rent hikes, the GOP continues to pursue blatantly transphobic policies to serve their made-up culture wars,” Fried said. “Erasing and criminalizing trans people is absolutely disgusting and can’t be allowed to stand.”
In response to the criticism, an FLHSMV spokesperson issued a new statement explaining the rule, and clarifying that it only applies to gender when replacing a license, not when getting a newly issued license.
“Expanding the department’s authority to issue replacement licenses dependent on one’s internal sense of gender or sex identification is violative of the law and does not serve to enhance the security and reliability of Florida issued licenses and identification cards,” the FLHSMV said.
A bill currently moving through the Florida House seeks to replace the word “gender” with “sex,” and would require all applications for driver’s licenses and ID cards to include birth sex, instead of gender identity.
