Equality Florida Condemns New DeSantis Administration Policy

Denying Legal Recognition, Accurate Driver Licenses/Identification for Transgender Floridians

In a move intended to criminalize transgender Floridians, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle published a memo that rescinds a policy allowing transgender Floridians to update the gender marker on their driver's licenses or IDs.

Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida, issued the following statement:

"The DeSantis administration's obsession with scapegoating transgender Floridians has escalated into an outrageous attack that further erodes freedom and liberty in our state. This cruel policy threatens transgender Floridians with civil and criminal penalties and blocks them from obtaining the critical government-issued identification necessary to continue their daily lives.

Transgender people have always existed in every culture on every continent and always will. In Florida, tens of thousands of people have legally updated their gender marker on their driver's license or ID. They carefully followed the rules to ensure their identification accurately reflects who they are, and they trusted this process. Now, an abrupt policy reversal has thrown their lives into chaos. The cruelty of this kind of government overreach and intrusion should alarm every Floridian. These reckless and hateful policies are intended to make the transgender community feel unsafe and unwelcome in Florida and to bully them

We know this is a devastating development, and we are working with our coalition partners, our grassroots volunteers, and our legal groups to figure out what options are available to fight back."

These attacks on the transgender community are part of a political operation. It's manufactured panic from right-wing think tanks who asked what culture war issue would rile people up now that the vast majority embrace marriage equality.