Florida
Florida transgender activists stage die-in over rule prohibiting changes to gender on driver's licenses
Transgender activists in Florida held die-in demonstrations at driver’s license offices across the Sunshine State in protest of a new rule to criminalize changing gender on a license to reflect a person’s gender identity.
Dozens of people showed up Friday morning draped in transgender flags or orange road-safe vests and laid down in lobbies and offices in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Gainesville, according to videos posted to social media. The groups Prism, Youth Action Fund, Equality Florida, Hope CommUnity Center, GLSEN Central Florida and SPEKTRUM Health organized the protests.
“Participants will stage die-ins to underscore the devastating consequences of efforts to erase the transgender community’s legal recognition,” Prism said in a press release.
The activists staged the protests after a recent decision to bar transgender residents from being allowed to change the gender on their driver’s licenses or state identification.
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Transgender activists in Florida held die-in demonstrations at driver’s license offices across the Sunshine State in protest of a new rule to criminalize changing gender on a license to reflect a person’s gender identity. (Adobe Stock)
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Deputy Executive Director Robert Kynoch wrote in a memo to county tax collectors that “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver’s license constitutes fraud” and people with licenses that misrepresent their biological gender could be subjected to “criminal and civil penalties, including cancelation, suspension, or revocation of his or her driver license.”
Activists protesting at one DMV could be seen lining up against the wall holding cardboard headstones with various phrases, including “Killed by Ron DeSantis” and “Killed by the DMV,” according to The Advocate.
The Florida Legislature is also considering the What Is A Woman Act, which would prohibit licenses from reflecting a gender that is not a person’s biological gender.
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The Florida Legislature is also considering the What Is A Woman Act, which would prohibit licenses from reflecting a gender that is not a person’s biological gender. (Getty)
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“The term ‘gender’… does not refer to a person’s internal sense of his or her gender role or identification, but has historically and commonly been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics,” Kynoch wrote in his memo.
Florida’s residents were previously allowed to submit a court order for a name change or a letter from a physician on gender transition treatment to have their gender changed on their license.
Gulf system to bring downpours to Florida
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber is continuing to watch an area in the Gulf that is expected to bring much-needed rain to Florida this weekend. He said the system will likely drift to the north and northwest and will linger before heading to the northeast. He said to get a tropical depression, or a tropical storm there needs to be winds and a closed low and he is not seeing that in the models yet. Weber is also tracking a system off the coast of Africa that has a 10% chance of developing over the next week. He says it will likely enter a hostile environment and dissipate.
TAMPA, Fla. – Forecasters are tracking a broad disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast that could bring much-needed rain to parched communities this weekend.
Gulf tropical development potential
What we know:
Models continue to indicate there is a potential for an area of low pressure to form over the northeast Gulf off the west coast of Florida over the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center says an area in the Gulf has a 30% chance of tropical development over the next seven days.
Models a shifting away from the forecast of the system moving over the state and off the coast of the Carolinas. Models are now indicating a more likely scenario that it lingers in the Gulf over the weekend and may drift more to the northwest near the Florida Panhandle or Louisiana coast. Early next week conditions look like they will become less conducive and may prohibit much development. Regardless of whether it organizes, the system will bring tropical downpours and increased moisture across Florida and parts of the Southeast.
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber states we are close to 7.50″ below average on our rainfall in Tampa for the year. A weak area of low pressure or tropical system can be beneficial in helping to make up for the rainfall deficit we have been experiencing. Drought conditions continue over much of the state of Florida. If this system ends up drifting more westward, it would limit the total amount of rainfall and the highest totals would be along the immediate west coast.
Atlantic tropical development potential
A tropical wave southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands remains disorganized.
It is moving west-northwest and, according to the NHC, there is a chance for slow development over the next day or two. By the weekend it is expected to move into less conducive conditions and Saharan dust will begin to affect this wave, limiting its moisture. The time for this system to develop is very limited and will not develop after the weekend.
The NHC is giving it a 10% chance of developing.
Weather factors and storm names
What we don’t know:
Officials cannot yet confirm if the disturbance will overcome environmental hurdles like land interaction, wind shear and dry air. Computer models remain uncertain on how much this system will develop over the waters of the Gulf. If it stays over the warm waters of the Gulf longer, it may give it additional time to organize. Interactions with land and wind shear will likely pose obstacles in further development.
To become a tropical system, it must develop a defined circulation with organized thunderstorms. If it reaches maximum sustained winds of 39 mph, it will become a tropical storm and be named Bertha.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13Meteorologist Jim Weber, the National Hurricane Center tropical weather outlooks, as well as forecast computer models.
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License to blush: A South Florida retiree was taken aback by her new license plate. Her family thinks she should keep it. Would you?
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VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – If you felt shaking along Florida’s east coast on Thursday, you’re not alone. But it wasn’t an earthquake.
A strong “experimental explosion” was reported in the waters off Central Florida on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS website indicates that the explosion happened around 3:04 p.m., roughly 91 miles east-northeast of Ponce Inlet.
Per the agency, the event registered a preliminary magnitude of 3.9. However, few other details about what may have caused the explosion have been provided at this time.
“The recorded ground motions from this event are more typical of an explosion than a naturally occurring earthquake,” the USGS website reads. “The Navy has conducted Full Ship Shock Trials in this region in the past.”
[A LOOK BACK: U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford performs shock trials on an aircraft carrier in 2021]
News 6 has reached out to Navy officials for more information and is awaiting additional details.
Anyone who felt the impact of the explosion is urged to report their experience here.
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