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.”