Florida Stops Gender Changes on Licenses, Department Cites ‘Fraud’ and Lack of Authority

Vehicles are driven along I-95 in Miami, Fla., on June 30, 2022. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida drivers can no longer alter their license to state any gender that differs from their biological sex, as the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced that not only is it “fraud” to do so but that it did not have the authority to allow such a change.

“In Florida, you do not get to play identity politics with your driver’s license,” department spokesperson Molly Best told The Epoch Times in an email. “To obtain a license, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) requires satisfactory proof of identity, including your biological sex, to the Department.”

The change in policy came when the department released a memo announcing the decision to rescind its direction and guidelines for licensees looking to change their gender called the Driver License Operations Manual, Issuance Requirements, IR08-Gender Requirements, on Jan. 30, arguing that it had no authority under state law to issue the changed requirements. Legislative changes are possibly on the way to back up that decision.

“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,” the department stated in the memo.

FLHSMV clarified to The Epoch Times that this direction never included issuing new licenses.

“The Department has rescinded IR08-Gender Requirements, and the rescission pertains solely to replacement license requests,” Florida Highway Patrol Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Steve Gaskins told The Epoch Times in an email. “No changes have been made to the process of establishing gender on a newly issued Florida credential.”

Matters of Fraud

The department went even further in its memo to state that “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver’s license constitutes fraud under s. 322,212, F.S., and subjects an offender to criminal and civil penalties, including cancellation, suspension, or revocation of his or her driver license.”

Florida statute 322.12 states that “it is unlawful for any person to use a false or fictitious name in any application for a driver’s license or identification card or knowingly to make a false statement, knowingly conceal a material fact, or otherwise commit a fraud in any such application.”

Under current statutes, the application for identification cards such as a driver’s license requires documents such as a birth certificate or an unexpired passport.

Floridians can still request a replacement license in the case it is lost or stolen or in the event of a change in the licensee’s name or address.

“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,” Sgt. Gaskins told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The security, reliability, and accuracy of government-issued credentials is paramount.”

While the department made this decision based on current state law, Florida’s House of Representatives is currently considering CS/HB 1639, which seeks to define sex based on an individual’s biology and update the current statutes to require an indication of sex rather than gender on certain applications and licenses.

A demonstrator at the Equality Florida rally at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., on March 13, 2023, holds a sign stating, "Free States Don't Ban Trans Health Care." Dan M. Berger/The Epoch Times

‘Not Targeting Anybody’

This decision by FLHSMV was quickly met with criticism by pro-trans supporters in the state.

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, released a statement, calling it a “cruel policy” that “threatens” Floridians who identify as transgender with criminal penalties and “blocks” them from obtaining their necessary identification.

There is also the issue of people who took advantage of the system while they could.

“In Florida, tens of thousands of people have legally updated their gender marker on their driver’s license or ID,” she said. “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.”

Equality Florida did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for further comment.

“It’s not targeting anybody,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said of the policy change at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida. “It’s just, ‘How do you have to root your policy?’ And I think we just have to root our policy in truth and fact, and so that’s what it is.

“You’re born one way, or you’re born the other. And that’s just how we gotta roll.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about his proposed legislation to combat homelessness during a press conference in Miami Beach on Feb. 5, 2024. Courtesy of the Office of the Florida Governor

Florida was not the first state to make this decision.

The Kansas State Legislature decided to end the practice of changing the gender on official identification via the passing of its own Women’s Bill of Rights (SB-180) in April 2023, overruling a veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to do so.

It took effect in July 2023, and Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach quickly filed a lawsuit to prohibit people who identify as transgender from changing their sex on their driver’s licenses; he convinced a district judge to put a temporary stop to the practice that remained in effect through the start of 2024.

However, according to the Associated Press, Mr. Kobach not only sees the need to stop more gender changes but also to require all licenses and birth certificates already changed to be reverted to the holder’s sex at birth. That push is now being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, and as of Jan. 23, that case is still ongoing.

The Epoch Times brought this situation to FLHSMV’s attention and asked if any already-issued licenses were changed under the now-rescinded IR08-Gender Requirements, and if so, if this announcement is also essentially a notice to those Floridians that they have to change it back.

“Licenses that have already been issued will not be rescinded,” Ms. Best replied.