MIAMI.- The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) will not allow transgender people to update their gender on their driver’s license document, claiming that this makes identification registration difficult and violates current law.
According to a memo written by FLHSMV Deputy Executive Director Robert Kynoch to county tax collectors, the Department conducted a review of current practices, policies and directives to provide better services.
As part of that review, the Department is rescinding the driver’s license operations manual that allowed Floridians to change the gender marker on their license.
Clarifies that the FLHSMV can issue a replacement license “only when the license or permit is lost or stolen, or when there is a subsequent change in the name, address or restrictions of the holder.”
According to the memo dated January 26, establishing gender on a Florida driver’s license is based on supporting documents provided with the application.
Points out that “gender” under Florida law does not refer to a person’s internal sense of their gender role or identification, but rather to what has historically and commonly been understood as synonymous with “sex” determined by innate and immutable factors. .
It specifies that the driver’s license is an identification document and, as such, plays a fundamental role in helping public and private entities to correctly establish the identity of the person presenting the document.
“Allowing an individual to modify their license to reflect an internal sense of gender role or identity, which is neither immutable nor objectively verifiable, undermines the purpose of identification registration and can frustrate the State’s ability to enforce its laws.”
It warns that misrepresenting “gender,” understood as “sex,” on a driver’s license would constitute fraud under Florida law.
The text does not clarify what those who have already changed the “gender” on their driver’s license should do.
The memo was posted on the “X” social network by Democratic state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani of Orange, who claimed to have verified the authenticity of the text with FLHSMV.
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