Trans Kansans launch court fight against Kobach effort to reverse gender changes on IDs
Five transgender Kansans who want to get or keep a driver’s license matching their gender identity are going to court to fight Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s effort to block state officials from changing IDs.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed a motion Tuesday on behalf of the individuals, seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Kobach last week in Shawnee County District Court. The filing is part of an expanding legal effort to counter the Republican state attorney general’s plan to use the courts to force state agencies to follow his interpretation of SB 180, a new state law defining man and woman based upon sex assigned at birth.
On Monday, Kobach obtained a temporary restraining order from Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson blocking Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration from issuing updated licenses for the next two weeks. The Kansas Department of Revenue has asked Watson to dissolve her order, and the judge has set a hearing for 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Kobach contends the law, which took effect July 1, requires agencies to reverse any gender changes previously made to driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Democrats, the ACLU and other opponents of SB 180 say Kobach’s interpretation is wrong.
“Mr. Kobach’s actions demonstrate a flagrant attempt to do an end-run around our state constitution,” ACLU of Kansas legal director Sharon Brett said in a statement.
“Mr. Kobach is choosing to focus the power of the attorney general’s office on, of all things, attacking and discriminating against transgender Kansans, and it is insulting to all Kansans that Mr. Kobach and other extremists who propped up SB 180 claim to be helping women, when they have made no efforts to meaningfully do so.”
Brett said Kobach had “weaponized women’s rights” in a way that actually reimposes “oppressive gender stereotypes that hurt all of us.” SB 180 is titled the “Women’s Bill of Rights.”
The ACLU’s motion to intervene, if granted, would allow the organization to fight Kobach directly in court. The motion says the state is prohibited from infringing on the equal and inalienable rights guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution.
The motion also describes the potential consequences to the trans residents if their driver’s licenses are switched back to their original form. One of the individuals represented by the ACLU is Kathryn Redman, a 62-year-old Lenexa resident who has lived openly as a woman since she was 59. Redman will need to renew her license in 2027 after previously having her gender marker changed.
“Prior to changing the gender marker on her license, Ms. Redman frequently received rude and harassing comments when she appeared as female but was forced to show an ID with a male gender marker,” the motion reads. “Whenever she flew, the mismatch between her physical appearance and the gender marker on her license resulted in the Transportation Security Administration conducting invasive pat downs of the genital area of her body.”
But with her updated license, Redman “no longer experiences rude or harassing comments for showing her ID,” the motion says.
Kobach’s office hasn’t commented publicly on the case since the lawsuit was filed Friday. In a court document filed last week, Kobach wrote that a supermajority of the Legislature “has concluded that having immutable biological sex reflected in the driver’s license data set and in other data sets is in the public interest. This should settle the matter as far as the Court is concerned.”
The ACLU’s intervention comes after the Kansas Department of Revenue, which oversees driver’s licenses, filed its own court document Monday asking Watson to remove the temporary restraining order. KDOR attorney Ted Smith wrote that many Kansas residents depend on their licenses to indicate their gender to employers and that trans residents could be put in a position of explaining the difference between what their license says and how they present to society.
“There will be serious harm and public impact to individuals if they must reclassify their gender as requested” by Kobach, Smith wrote.
SB 180 is one of the first laws of its kind in the nation, amid a sweep of legislation affecting the lives of transgender residents. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the measure this spring over Kelly’s veto.
In addition to driver’s licenses, Kobach also contends the law requires the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to stop updating the birth certificates of trans Kansans and to revert hundreds of previously changed birth certificates to their original form.
In June, Kobach filed a motion in federal court seeking to gut a 2019 consent judgment requiring KDHE to provide updated birth certificates to trans individuals who request one. No action has been taken on that action so far by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree, who signed the judgment.
This story was originally published July 11, 2023 at 5:47 PM.
