Kansas to Invalidate Licenses of Trans Drivers

Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver's licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed restrictions in other states on listing gender identities in government documents. The new law takes effect Thursday, the AP reports. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure but the Legislature's GOP supermajorities overrode it last week as Republican state lawmakers across the US have pursued another round of measures to roll back transgender rights. Transgender people have said carrying IDs that misgender them opens them to intrusive questions, harassment and even violence when they show it to police, merchants, and others.

The bill prohibits documents from listing any sex other than the one assigned birth and invalidates any that reflect a conflicting gender identity. Florida, Tennessee, and Texas also don't allow driver's licenses to reflect a trans person's gender identity, and at least eight states besides Kansas have policies that bar trans residents from changing their birth certificates. But only Kansas' law requires reversing changes previously made for trans residents. Kansas officials expect to cancel about 1,700 driver's licenses and issue new birth certificates for up to 1,800 people. Legislators in at least seven other states are considering bills to prevent transgender people from changing one or both documents, according to a search using the bill-tracking software Plural. But none would reverse past changes as Kansas' does.

Kansas' new law enjoyed nearly unanimous GOP support. It is the latest success in what has become an annual effort to further roll back transgender rights by Republicans in statehouses across the US, bolstered by policies and rhetoric from President Trump's administration. Kelly supports transgender rights, but GOP lawmakers have overridden her vetoes three of the past four years. Kansas bans gender-affirming care for minors and bars transgender women and girls from female sports teams, kindergarten through college. Transgender people can't use public restrooms, locker rooms, or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities, though there was no enforcement mechanism until this year's law added tough new provisions.