Driver’s license bill would shame and out transgender people
The first time I got a driver’s license in Florida was 1992, when I was stationed in Pensacola. I was training to be an intelligence officer in a Navy F/A-18 Squadron. The second time I got a Florida driver’s license was three years ago, when my wife and I moved to the state after purchasing our forever home.
In the intervening years, a lot has happened in my life. In 1994, I was the Ground Officer of the Year in my squadron and received two Navy Achievement medals for my leadership. During my squadron’s six-month deployment, our battle group was the only resource in theater, and I was selected to go ashore and lead the intelligence efforts of the battle group, working with the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other armed forces to prepare plans to defend Kuwait when Iraq deployed troops along their border.
LIFE-SAVING TRANSITION
After the Navy, my wife and I started a family and were blessed with three beautiful children. In spite of the joy I was experiencing as a new spouse and parent, I began seeing a psychologist to help me understand and manage the gender dysphoria I had been experiencing since childhood. After years of suppressing who I knew myself to be, in 2012 I knew I could no longer live a lie, and my choice was whether to live authentically or no longer live. I put my trust in God with confidence that he knew me all along and that I could trust him to give me the strength to get through the challenge of a physical transition.
My transition allows me to experience the world as who I was born to be: a woman.
BAD LEGISLATION
Florida lawmakers have proposed legislation that would prevent someone like me from using my legally adopted gender on my driver’s license, and instead mandate that my license reflect the gender assigned to me at birth. This is not a legal or a safety question. It would only serve to shame transgender people, forcing us to unwillingly out ourselves any time we must show our license, stripping us of our dignity and right to self-determination. This bill would enshrine into law a rule Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration enacted last month. It is discrimination, plain and simple.
If you met me on the street, you would never know that I was transgender. No one around me knows that I am, so what is the point in publicly outing myself? My anonymity, the peace of being able to live as I was meant to, and to be seen by others as I have known myself to be is a blessing, as I know God made me this way.
SPEAKING UP
And yet I am choosing to speak publicly and to out myself to my neighbors, friends, and others because the action the DeSantis administration has taken, and what the Florida Legislature is considering, is so heinous. The same convictions to fairness and justice that drove me into the Navy compel me to speak out now.
When I served my country, I swore to defend the Constitution, which assures us of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. People like me are working hard to feed our families, contribute to our communities and build a life centered around these sacred ideals. I fought for our country because I believe in freedom for all, not freedom for some.
CALL TO ACTION
The Legislature is exploiting people like me to score political points. If you agree that this is wrong, call the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and your state legislators to tell them that you oppose this government overreach. The government should not be picking and choosing who gets to enjoy God-given liberty this country offers, and that all citizens deserve the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
Alaina Kupec, a veteran, lives on Florida’s Treasure Coast and is the president of GRACE, a nonpartisan nonprofit she founded to protect and affirm the dignity of the transgender community.