Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration has revoked the driver’s license of a transgender content creator who publicly shared how they updated the gender marker on their license.
Last year, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) issued a letter stating that transgender residents would no longer be allowed to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses. The letter claimed that gender is the same as biological sex and asserted that gender identity is “neither immutable nor objectively verifiable.” It also warned that individuals who listed a gender identity inconsistent with their biological sex could face “criminal and civil penalties,” including the potential “revocation of his or her driver’s license.”
This policy has sparked creative resistance among Florida’s transgender community, as demonstrated by James Rose, a TikTok creator with over 500,000 followers, who shared a now-deleted video explaining how they navigated the system to update the gender listed on their ID. In the video, Rose explained that they had utilized a “loophole” in the system for replacing lost licenses. “It’s so humiliating sometimes to be in a hostile state,” Rose said in the video.
However, the FLHSMV in a letter on Monday informed Rose that it had canceled their driver’s license and replaced it with one that incorrectly listed their gender as male. Although Rose’s name was redacted in the letter, the right-wing social media account Libs of TikTok — founded by Chaya Raichik, who is registered as an “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — posted the letter alongside Rose’s video. The letter indicated that the department planned “to conduct an inquiry,” as well as an audit, to “determine whether similar errors have been made previously,” which may further endanger trans people in the state.
“Anti-trans laws are always going to be selectively enforced. Clearly the DeSantis administration wanted to make an example of an influential person,” transgender legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout. “This should serve as a reminder that while it may be morally just to work around immoral laws, you need to be careful where you share such information.”
On Tuesday, two senior staffers in DeSantis’s administration commended the FLHSMV for its “dedicated” efforts to revoke Rose’s driver’s license. DeSantis’s communications director, Bryan Griffin, amplified this anti-trans sentiment on X, declaring, “Florida operates on truth, and Florida driver’s licenses will only reflect an individual’s true sex.”
“Despite these claims, the state of Florida is not the definitive source of truth of people’s identity,” Chapman said. “They are deliberately ignoring federally issued documents and documents issued by other states that clearly state people’s sex.”
In fact, Florida is one of only four states that completely bans people from changing the gender marker on their licenses. Additionally, courts across the country have consistently recognized gender identity as a protected characteristic and have ruled in favor of allowing transgender people to update their legal documentation to match their gender identity.
Florida’s anti-trans ID policy, along with other anti-LGBTQ laws enacted in the state, has prompted transgender activist and journalist Erin Reed to designate Florida as a “do not travel” state on her anti-trans risk assessment map. LGBTQ organizations, as well as national groups like the Human Rights Campaign, have issued travel advisories for the state.
“Because of Ron DeSantis and his frenzied appeal to extremists, LGBTQ+ people in Florida are finding themselves in a state of emergency every single day,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “Since the day he took office, Governor DeSantis has weaponized his position to weave bigotry, hate, and discrimination into public law for his own political gain.”
The impact of these anti-trans laws is evident in the work of the Trans Continental Pipeline (TCP), a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to helping transgender people who are relocating to Colorado. Following this year’s presidential election, TCP reported a sharp increase in inquiries, with Florida emerging as one of the leading states fueling demand for their services. In fact, a national survey by the Human Rights Campaign revealed that over 80 percent of transgender and nonbinary people in Florida have considered leaving the state or have taken steps to do so.
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