LET TRANS FLORIDIANS DRIVE - Let your voice be heard!

[Vidanjali]

Though Action Network and sponsored by PRISM (https://www.prismfl.org/our-history), you can send a letter to the following folks (see below) requesting that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division launch an official investigation into suppression of rights of transgender Floridians. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A RESIDENT OF FLORIDA TO TAKE ACTION. If you are not familiar with the recent Florida driver's license issue with respect to transgender folks, you can read about it when you click the Action Network link below. You can also check out this thread: 

 

Use this link to start writing & please share this link with others: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/let-trans-people-drive/

You will see a letter template which you can use, or you can write your own letter. I have included the letter I wrote here in case you wish to use any portion of it. 

 

Folks your letter will/can be sent to:

 

My letter:

 

I hope this letter finds you and yours well and happy. With respect to the January 26, 2024 memo released from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that effectively bans transgender people from having an ID or driver's license that accurately represents their gender identity, I am writing to request that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division launch an official investigation into the suppression of the rights of transgender Floridians.

 

The memo asserts that “gender” is synonymous with “biological sex,” and argues that gender identity is “neither immutable nor objectively verifiable.” It suggests that permitting transgender individuals to update the gender marker on their driver's licenses would “prevent the state from enforcing its laws.” Yet, these laws include further oppressive bans on transgender individuals using a public restroom associated with their gender identity and those targeting adult medical care. Therefore this suggestion implicitly gives license to those who work for and under FLHSMV, law enforcement, as well as citizens possessing de facto prejudice against transgender and other LGBTQIA+ people to actively profile anyone suspected of being transgender.

 

Laws and guidelines which codify or identify any subset of people as “other” and therefore deny them rights and freedom are antidemocratic and therefore antithetical to the ideals of this nation. Such laws erode culture and place vulnerable minority populations in real and present danger. Transgender people are real and have existed as long as humans have existed. Gender diversity is natural. These are neither ideological claims nor theories. Understanding can be gained by meeting with and getting to know actual transgender people rather than subscribing to the pernicious myths which portray transgender people as criminals and monsters.

 

Further, I argue that the guidelines introduced in the memo would render Florida out of compliance with the REAL ID Act. According to the Act, one of the established minimum security standards for license issuance and production is that gender be displayed on the ID. Please note that  gender is not defined by the Act, nor is sex is anywhere mentioned in the Act. Therefore, the Act neither explicitly nor implicitly equates gender with sex. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) webpage on resources for gender-based violence demonstrates explicitly that the DHS does not equate gender with sex. In fact, they specifically distinguish among biological sex (which I will note is far more complex and nuanced than reproductive capacity); gender identity; gender expression; sexual orientation; and difference from social norms related to masculinity or femininity.

 

I urge you to please be a hero and act to resist the erosion of our society, culture, and democracy by supporting an official investigation by the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division into the suppression of the rights of transgender Floridians. None of us are “other” and we all deserve to live without the fear of oppression and violence for simply existing as we genuinely are.

 

Thank you very much for your time, attention, and consideration. May God bless you.

 

Yours,

...

 

 

 

 

 

[Ashley0616]

They need 81 more to reach the goal I just did it.

[Ivy]

Did it

[awkward-yet-sweet]

Looks like they need 335 more.  I sent mine.  I'm sure it will be considered one of the more colorful submissions, although mostly due to comparisons of political systems and the true purposes of identification/licenses in general rather than language. 

 

Something comes to mind about a red flag with a couple of farm implements and a star.  And something else comes to mind about another red flag with a white circle and a burned waffle in the middle... 🤫 I certainly couldn't post the text of it here. 

[Vidanjali]

22 hours ago, Ashley0616 said:

They need 81 more to reach the goal

 

11 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

Looks like they need 335 more

 

Many web-based petition, letter writing, or fundraising campaigns refresh the goal each time some benchmark is met. That is why you'll see the number changing. When I submitted my letter yesterday, the submissions were in the double digits. When I looked just now they had exceeded one thousand. So, hopefully the momentum will keep on.

[Ashley0616]

8 minutes ago, Vidanjali said:

 

 

Many web-based petition, letter writing, or fundraising campaigns refresh the goal each time some benchmark is met. That is why you'll see the number changing. When I submitted my letter yesterday, the submissions were in the double digits. When I looked just now they had exceeded one thousand. So, hopefully the momentum will keep on.

That's awesome that they got the goal and hopefully many more will sign it!