ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A new directive from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle received strong backlash from the LGBTQ community who protested in front of the Orange County Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Can we talk to you about this policy that is going to make it harder for trans folks to get a license in Florida?” said one demonstrator as a crowd of about 30 to 40 people gathered outside of an Orange County DMV.
Many were seen lying down in front of the DMV, others holding signs during a die-in protest of a new memo from Robert Kynoch, the head of Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle.
The memo is addressed to county tax collectors, and it rescinds previous policies that allowed residents to elect to change their gender, saying they “are not supported by statutory authority.”
The memo added, “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.”
Protestors were at the die-in protest for a symbolic 37 minutes.
“Thirty-seven minutes is representative of the 37% of respondents to a survey of trans-gender Floridians who reported abuse discrimination and violence towards them as a result of presenting an ID that does not match their gender presentation,” Lana Dunn said,
Across Florida, activists joined die-in protests at DMVs to show Ron DeSantis the harm of his new rule that criminalizes changing your gender marker on your ID to match your identity.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) February 9, 2024
Trans people have always been here and always will be. You can not govern us out of existence. pic.twitter.com/C7Ot4cb8mG
Dunn said the die-in comes as LGBTQ rights are once again in the sight of lawmakers saying their voices have gone unheard for too long.
“We’ve testified in front of the Senate, and the House of Representatives all to no avail our hand has been forced at this point,” Dunn said.
Mulan Williams said this new DMV directive leaves her with questions.
“What harm are we doing to get our gender markers changed, what harm are we doing being our true authentic selves and what is the end goal,” Williams said.
In response to demonstrators, the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office sent a statement saying, “(It does) not pick and choose which directives to follow based on personal, political or any other consideration.”
As Florida constitutional officers that provide State services at the local level, tax collectors implement all FLHSMV directives—they do not pick and choose which directives to follow based on personal, political or any other consideration. The Orange County Tax Collector’s office will continue to work with the Department and follow their guidance on this and all matters.
Spokesperson from the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office
It went on to say it “will continue to work with the Department and follow their guidance on this and all matters.”
“I want to say to my community, we have the power to stop all of this simply by voting because, at the end of the day, this is how to change it. These demonstrations are great — I’m here for it — but we have to vote,” Williams said.
Protestors said they are going to continue to make their voices heard and to be on the lookout for their next demonstration especially as the election season starts to ramp up.
This rule change comes as a wide-ranging bill to make it a law moves through the state house titled “Gender and Biological Sex.”
The bill, now in its second committee, would replace the term “gender” with the term “sex” on applications for driver’s licenses and ID cards.
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