Kansas revoked driver’s licenses of 1,700 transgender residents

Some 1,700 Kansans had their driver’s licenses invalidated last month. It wasn’t for racking up speeding or drunk driving tickets, but because they are transgender.

Kansas is one of five states to ban trans people from changing the gender marker on their licenses, but it is the first to pass a law that retroactively revokes licenses that have already been changed. The law also invalidated the birth certificates of those who updated their gender markers.

Hundreds of trans drivers have already received letters from the state informing them that their documents were “immediately invalid” and that they “may be subject to additional penalties” if they continue driving unless they surrender the license to the Kansas Division of Vehicles and receive a new one with their birth gender.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Jaelynn Abegg, a 41-year-old trans woman living in Wichita who received a letter. She said she won’t surrender her license and plans to move this month to another state.

“This is a continuation of the message that the Legislature has been sending for years now, that transgender people are not welcome in Kansas,” she said.

Two anonymous trans residents sued Kansas last month, arguing that the law violates the state’s protections of personal autonomy, privacy, equality, due process and free speech. On Tuesday, Douglas County District Judge James McCabria declined to grant a temporary restraining order against the law while the case continues.

McCabria wrote in his ruling that there is not enough evidence to show that trans people will face harassment and discrimination if they have to use the restroom or show identification that conflicts with their gender identity.

Kansas law was years in the making

Kansas has allowed trans people to update gender markers on their ID cards since 2007. Then, in 2023, it changed its legal definition of sex to be male or female and assigned at birth.

Fifteen other states have made a similar change in recent years — and President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that there are only two immutable genders. The State Department now prohibits trans people from changing gender designations on their passports.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sued the state, arguing that allowing people to update their gender markers violated the 2023 law. Last year, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling and allowed gender marker changes to resume.

In January, Kobach supported the new bill, which he said would “correct a mistake” by the courts. The state Senate added a provision barring trans people from using restrooms corresponding to their gender identity in government-owned buildings. It was adopted without public comment. Penalties for violating this provision can be up to $1,000 for individuals and up to $125,000 for government entities that have committed more than one violation.

Last month, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, saying the Legislature “should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on making life more affordable for Kansans.” Days later, the Republican-controlled state Legislature overrode his veto.

Kansas House Speaker Daniel Hawkins, a Republican, said in a statement at the time that the purpose of the law was to protect women. “It’s not about scoring political points, it’s about doing what’s right for the women and girls in our communities,” he said, according to the Kansas Reflector. Hawkins did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

State Rep. Mark Schreiber, the only Republican to vote against the bill, told NBC News he agreed with the appeals court that Kobach could not show how allowing trans people to change gender markers on their licenses harmed the state.

“I don’t have any trans people in my family, but I know trans people,” he said, adding that they are not looking for special privileges and just want to live their lives. “And we seem to continue to pass laws that continue to obstruct that.” »

Harper Seldin, one of the ACLU attorneys involved in the lawsuit, said during court arguments Friday that the Kansas Legislature singled out trans Kansans “because of a unique social stigma.”

“They were suddenly forced, without notice or opportunity to be heard, to show up at the DMV to get a driver’s license that announced to everyone — the bank teller, the hotel clerk, the poll worker on Election Day — that they were transgender,” Seldin said.

Trans people have long reported facing more harassment and discrimination when they use IDs that don’t match their gender identity or expression, and many trans Kansans have said they fear that their daily risk of facing such harassment will only increase as a result of the law.

“There was no plan”

Over the past five years, dozens of states have considered bills targeting transgender people, but the majority of them have targeted people’s ability to play on school sports teams that match their gender identity and minors’ access to transition-related care. In recent years, state and federal policies have evolved to focus on changing legal definitions of gender and restricting access to updated identity documents.

Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank that tracks the legislation, described these broader laws as “gender regulation laws” that attack the basic rights and identities of trans people.

“All along, the goal of those pushing these bills and attacks has been to target transgender people and create license to discriminate against transgender people and exclude them from public life,” he said. “Basically, it’s about trying to get them to stop being transgender.” »

The Kansas law took effect immediately upon publication in the Register on February 26. A spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Revenue told the Kansas Reflector that the law invalidated about 1,700 licenses. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment. At the court hearing Friday, Kobach said the department has sent letters to 275 Kansans so far and 138 have received new licenses.

Andrea Ellis, a 34-year-old trans woman living in Wellington, said she received a letter on Wednesday even though she never changed the gender marker on her license – she only legally changed her name in December. She went to the DMV the next day, where she said staff didn’t know what to do and said her license had a “flag” on it.

They reduced his license and gave him a temporary one. But later that day, they called her and told her she had to go back to the DMV because they had made a mistake. When she returned, she said they gave her another temporary permit that looked similar to the first.

“They claim it was thought through and everything else, but there was no grace period unlike any other type of deployment program,” Ellis said. “There was no plan at all.”

Some trans residents, like Matthew Neumann, said they still haven’t received any notification about their permits. Neumann, executive director of the Kansas LGBTQ Foundation, said he checks the validity of his license daily on the Kansas Department of Revenue website, and it was still valid as of Friday.

Neumann said her organization has been raising money to help trans Kansans pay to update their licenses. Obtaining a license with an updated gender marker costs $8.75, while receiving a new ID costs $26.

Neumann has lived in Larned, Kansas, for 20 years and said he will never leave. He said he had been threatened over his use of the toilet and feared he would face more harassment under the new law.

“I’m just disappointed and frustrated,” he said. “I just hope maybe this is the wake-up call we need,” he said.