Kansas State Capitol – Photo: Denis Tangney Jr via iStockphoto
The Kansas Division of Vehicles has sent letters to transgender residents ordering them to surrender their driver’s licenses under a newly enacted anti-LGBTQ law.
The letters state that transgender individuals’ current licenses — those with gender markers matching their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth — are considered invalid as of Thursday, February 26. Recipients are instructed to surrender their licenses to obtain new credentials reflecting their sex at birth.
First reported by transgender journalist Erin Reed on her Substack, Erin in the Morning, the letter cites a recently enacted law — vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly and later overridden by the legislature — requiring that all driver’s licenses and state identification cards reflect the holder’s “sex at birth.”
While other states have barred gender-marker changes on vital records and state-issued IDs, Kansas is the first in the nation to invalidate previously issued documents and require that they be returned and replaced immediately.
The letters also note that the legislature “did not include a grace period for updating credentials” and threaten legal action and penalties against anyone found in possession of an “invalid” license.
According to The Kansas City Star, about 1,800 transgender Kansans are expected to have their licenses and identification documents declared invalid under the law.
The letter does not indicate whether transgender residents will be forced to pay out of pocket for new credentials. However, The Star reports that Republican lawmakers did not allocate funding to help those affected obtain replacement licenses. A standard driver’s license typically costs about $30, though a Kansas Department of Revenue spokesperson told the newspaper the agency is charging $8 to reissue licenses deemed invalid under the law.
According to Erin in the Morning, if a person is caught driving with an “invalid” license, they can be charged with a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. First-time offenders are more likely to receive a citation and a fine, but a conviction triggers an automatic 90-day license suspension.
As a result, those unable to secure alternate transportation may risk driving during the suspension period. Driving on a suspended license carries a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five days in jail. Under Kansas Department of Corrections policy, incarcerated transgender people are housed according to their sex assigned at birth — a practice advocates say places them at heightened risk of harassment, violence, and sexual assault.
The law also applies to birth certificates.
Jill Bronaugh, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told The 19th that individual Kansans are responsible for contacting the Office of Vital Statistics to replace invalidated birth certificates and will be charged $20 for a corrected copy.
“Each amended birth certificate will be reviewed manually by staff to determine if the birth certificate must be invalidated and amended,” Bronaugh said. “This process is expected to take several months to complete.”
The new law — dubbed the “bathroom bounty” bill by critics — includes provisions allowing people to sue if they encounter a transgender person in a public restroom that does not align with that person’s sex assigned at birth. Activists say the measure’s breadth, including its potential application to restrooms in private businesses, has prompted some to urge transgender Kansans to leave the state.
Trans Liberty PAC, a political action committee advocating for transgender rights, issued what it called its first-ever statewide evacuation order on February 26, urging transgender Kansans to leave and relocate, arguing that the new restrictions are nearly impossible to comply with if a person is openly transgender.
On her Substack, Reed added Kansas to a “Do Not Travel” list — joining Texas and Florida — that she maintains to track legislation in various states aimed at restricting the rights of transgender people.
Transgender rights activist Jaelynn Abegg told The 19th that she believes warning transgender people to relocate is “absolutely the right approach.”
“I don’t think that legislators in Kansas are done harassing trans people,” Abegg said. “I think that transgender health care for adults is coming next. It would not shock me within the next two to five years to see them come after name changes for transgender people. The cruelty has always been the point, and the objective has always been the complete erasure of transgender people from public life.”
GLAAD has released new data showing that 1,042 anti-LGBTQ incidents were reported across 47 states and the District of Columbia in 2025 -- a 5% increase over the previous year, according to the organization’s ALERT Desk Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker.
Anti-LGBTQ incidents were defined as "an act of harassment, threat(s), vandalism, and/or assault against an individual, group, and/or organization," with explicit evidence of anti-LGBTQ bias as a motivating factor.
The incidents included 128 acts of hateful vandalism, 76 violent assaults, 22 threats of mass violence, and 15 arson attempts.
Republican lawmakers in Kansas have voted to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a sweeping anti-transgender bill.
The measure, approved by both chambers earlier this month, invalidates driver's licenses and birth certificates that reflect a transgender person's gender identity rather than their assigned sex at birth. It also bars people from using restrooms that do not align with that assigned sex and bans multi-stall unisex bathrooms.
While the original House bill focused on prohibiting gender markers that align with a person's gender identity on identification documents, Republicans employed a procedural maneuver known as “gut and go” -- inserting the House language into a previously approved Senate bill -- to add the restroom restrictions.
Kansas lawmakers have passed a sweeping anti-trans bill that restricts which public restrooms and locker rooms transgender people may use.
The bill requires driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect a person’s assigned sex at birth and defines “gender” under Kansas law as biological sex determined at birth, including chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and internal and external genitalia.
Under the bill, Kansans would be barred from amending the gender marker on their original birth certificate, and driver’s licenses could only display a gender marker that aligns with a person’s assigned sex at birth, reports Topeka-based CBS affiliate WIBW.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.