Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles recently released a new policy banning transgender people from changing the gender listed on their driver’s license or ID card.
The new rule is a frightening addition to an ever-growing list of escalating attacks on transgender people across the country — an arson attack on a gender health clinic in Georgia, a demand for patient records by the Texas attorney general and GOP lawmakers stating that their “ endgame ” is to ban health care for all transgender people.
Increasingly, extremist politicians are making themselves loud and clear: It was never about the youth.
Sure, targeting transgender young people has propelled the anti-trans movement forward. Banning medical care and sports participation for transgender youth were topics that resonate with a conservative voter base.
But these coordinated afforts have always had the same goal in mind: limit opportunities for transgender people, of all ages, to participate in public life and prevent them from living as their authentic selves.