For years, Tampa resident Vince has had "male" listed on his official documentation, including his passport.
In Dec. 2024, he went to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to update his Florida driver’s license to reflect his proper sex marker. He worked closely with a DHSMV supervisor to make the change, which was approved.
So when he received a letter from the department three months later with a new driver’s license that had the sex changed back to female, he was taken aback.
Vince, who we're only identifying by his first name for his personal security, said he felt targeted.
“It’s very strange to be receiving a document that you already had by legal right and having it given back to you with basically an opinion piece,” he said.
The DHSMV has not responded to WUSF's request for comment at the time of publication.
The letter stated that the license issued on Dec. 26, 2024 was “improperly changed from female to male,” and that the term 'sex’ doesn’t refer to perceptions of gender identity but to “immutable biological and genetic characteristics.”
It also asserted that the license with “male” listed as the sex identifier should never have been issued.
A state memo issued in 2024 banned the changing of someone’s sex on their driver’s license or I-D card.
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For Vince, the possible ramifications go beyond the emotional toll of being told by a government agency that his sex marker was incorrect.
“When it comes to applying for jobs, applying for schooling, getting on a plane, traveling, that inconsistency between the documentation, there’s an obstacle,” he said.
Vince was born in another state, where he's in the process of attempting to have the sex marker on his birth certificate changed to “male.” While that state is more open to making a change, the judicial differences between there and Florida could make it harder.
Simone Chriss is the director of the transgender rights initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, a Gainesville-based advocacy group and law firm.
She said she knows over 50 people who have had their sex markers changed on their Florida IDs, and describes the state’s approach as “insidious.”
“The Florida DHSMV just did this in the dark behind closed doors with no public notice, with no legislative or rule-making authority to do so,” Chriss said. “They just changed the definition of sex.”
Chriss said that having a driver’s license with the incorrect sex on it can lead to trans people being outed unwillingly, which can “result in discrimination and harassment.”
For her, the issue is an extension of federal anti-trans legislation and a clear manifestation of bias within the state government.
Currently, there isn’t an appeals process for people to challenge this type of decision by the DHSMV.
However, Chriss said her team at Southern Legal Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida are working on a lawsuit to challenge the Florida Department of Health’s birth certificate policy.
For over a year, the Florida DOH has been denying transgender people the chance to change the sex marker on their birth certificates.
“At this moment, it’s difficult to say what options transgender people have,” Chriss said. “But if a person has any other document, like a passport, for example, that says the correct gender marker, I recommend that they use that in all interactions so they’re not outed without their consent.”
