Lesbian Couple's DMV Name-Change Challenge Highlights Florida's 'Convoluted' Marriage Laws?
A recent incident at a Florida DMV has highlighted a paradox in state law pertaining to same-sex marriages after a lesbian couple, who tied the knot in Connecticut, was refused new driver's licenses with name changes because Florida does not acknowledge same-sex marriages or civil unions.
The story, reported on by a local television news station, highlights a gray area in the state's legal system, since the women were able to get their Social Security cards updated with their new name (the women decided they want their names hyphenated on all documentation), and then found out from a state official that there are other ways in which they might also be able to update their driver's licenses, as one of the women pointed out herself in an article she wrote in a local publication Thursday.
The contradiction in rules became obvious when the couple, Rachel Jolley, a journalist, and Charlotte Lambert, called their local DMV asking if the name change can be performed on their driver's licenses, specifying that they were a same-sex couple, Jolley wrote in her article. The representative reportedly said: "Ma'am, that is none of our business. If you have a valid marriage license and the required documentation (Passport, Social Security Card, proofs of Residency), we honor it." Once the women visited the DMV office they presented their Connecticut marriage certificate as one of the documents, and they were told that the DMV cannot grant them new driver's licenses because Florida does not recognize same-sex marriages.
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However, a representative at the Florida Departament of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Ann Howard, reportedly told the women on the phone later that there are ways in which they can bypass these rules and still get their new driver's licenses.
"After Howard made sure that our marriage license didn't say 'same-sex' anywhere on it, she suggested we go to the DMV separately," Jolley wrote in her article. "The marriage license looks no different than any other, so why not try to beat the system and hope an unsuspecting worker doesn't pay attention?"
"The area is so gray that the DMV's own rep interpreted it incorrectly on the phone to us and the state's communications director [Howard] had to do research to figure things out," Jolley stated in her article.
Howard told The Christian Post over the phone Friday that anyone could change their name in general in Florida, which suggests that same-sex couples could change their names on driver's licenses at anytime, but as separate individuals, not based on their marriage certificate. Howard confirmed that the state does not acknowledge such certificates.
"Anyone can get a name change on their driver's license. Anyone," Howard told CP. "It doesn't matter what your sexual orientation is."
The issue in this case was, Howard explained, that a new document cannot be issued by the DMV based on a same-sex marriage certificate, becuase the state law does not recognize it. However, if two individuals were to change their names in court, and then come to DMV with the new documentation, the official would be obliged to issue new driver's licenses.
Jolley expressed dissapointment in her article at not being able to walk the path married couples usually do in this process.
"We were trying to follow what we thought were the rules for being responsible drivers in the state of Florida, but basically were advised on how to get around the rules because the existing ones did not apply to us as a same-sex married couple," she wrote.
As far as the definition of marriage, the Constitution of the State of Florida states: "Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."
