New law puts Kansas at vanguard of denying trans identities on drivers licenses, birth certificates

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by transgender residents and about as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond restrictions imposed by Republicans in other states on listing gender identities on government documents.

The new law comes into force on Thursday. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure, but the Legislature’s Republican supermajorities overturned it last week as Republican state lawmakers passed a new round of measures to roll back transgender rights.

The bill prohibits documents from listing any gender other than that assigned at birth and invalidates any document reflecting a conflicting gender identity. Florida, Tennessee and Texas also do not allow driver’s licenses to reflect a trans person’s gender identity, and at least eight states besides Kansas have policies that prohibit trans residents from changing their birth certificate.

But only Kansas law requires reversing changes previously made to trans residents. Kansas officials plan to revoke about 1,700 driver’s licenses and issue new birth certificates for up to 1,800 people.

“It tells me that Kansas Republicans want to be at the forefront of the culture war and in a race to the bottom,” said Democratic state Rep. Abi Boatman, a transgender Air Force veteran appointed in January to fill a vacant seat in Wichita.

The new Kansas law enjoyed almost unanimous support from the Republican Party. It’s the latest success in what has become an annual effort to further roll back transgender rights by Republicans in states across the United States, backed by policies and rhetoric from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump and other Republicans attack research-based conclusions that gender can change or be fluid as radical “gender ideology.” Kansas Republican lawmakers routinely describe transgender girls and women as men and claim to protect women.

Like his Republican colleagues, Kansas Senate Majority Leader Chase Blaisi said Trump’s re-election and other GOP victories in 2024 showed voters want to “get back to common sense” on gender issues.

“When I go home, people think there are only two genders, male and female,” Blasi said. “It’s the basic biology I learned in high school.”

Kelly supports transgender rights, but Republican lawmakers have overridden her veto three of the last four years. Kansas prohibits gender-affirming care for minors and bans transgender women and girls from women’s sports teams from kindergarten through college.

Transgender people cannot use public restrooms, locker rooms or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identity, although there is no enforcement mechanism until this year’s law adds new, stricter provisions.

Transgender people have said that carrying misleading IDs exposes them to intrusive questions, harassment and even violence when they show them to police, shopkeepers and others.

In 2023, Republicans stopped changes to Kansas birth certificates and driver’s licenses by enacting a measure ending the state’s legal recognition of trans residents’ gender identities. Although the law does not mention any of these documents, it legally defines male and female by a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth.

However, a lawsuit led to state court rulings that allowed driver’s license changes to resume last year.

Lawmakers in at least seven other states are considering bills to prevent transgender people from changing one or both documents, according to research using bill tracking software Plural.

But none could reverse past changes.

The additional step taken by Kansas lawmakers reinforces the message “that trans people are not welcome,” said Anthony Alvarez, a transgender student at the University of Kansas who works for a pro-LGBTQ rights group.

Kansas will likely notify transgender residents by mail that their driver’s license is no longer valid and they should go to a local licensing office to get a new one, said Zachary Denney, a spokesman for the agency that issues them.

The Legislature did not provide funds to cover the cost, so each person will pay it — $26 for a standard license.

Alvarez has already had four identity papers in four years since he changed his name, changed his gender and turned 21 years old.

He always planned to stay in his native Kansas after graduating with a history degree this spring.

But, he said, “they’re just making it harder and harder for me to live in the state that I love.” »