LAWRENCE, Kan. — Ray, a transgender man in rural Kansas, needs a valid driver’s license for work. So when the state legislature invalidated transgender residents’ licenses last month, he immediately went to the department of motor vehicles.
The clerk behind the counter seemed as confused as Ray was about the new law, which requires trans people to change the gender designation on their licenses back to their birth sex.
“It says we can’t change it again,” the clerk said, according to a video of the exchange Ray posted to TikTok.
“No, it says you must change it again,” said Ray, 29, a telecommunications worker and wheat farmer, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used out of fear of harassment. “I would be happy to keep it, but that’s not what I’ve been told.”
On Friday, a judge in Douglas County is expected to decide whether to place a temporary restraining order on the highly restrictive law, passed Feb. 18 by the Republican-led legislature. The law invalidated driver’s licenses and birth certificates for anyone who had changed the gender markers on their IDs from their birth sex.
Two transgender Kansans sued the state on Feb. 26, the day the law took effect, saying it violates their constitutional rights.
The driver’s license invalidation went into effect immediately, with no grace period.
The new law also includes a bathroom provision that allows Kansans to sue other citizens if they are “aggrieved” by someone of the opposite sex using a public restroom — a move that LGBTQ+ advocates argue is a “bounty” and opens up the state to wide-ranging legal challenges.
Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the new bathroom and driver’s license rules drastically change the lives of transgender Kansans, exposing “them to liability and harm.”
Enforcement of the new law has been chaotic, advocates say. Only 300 of the estimated 1,700 affected residents have received a notification letter ordering them to surrender their old licenses, according to the state.
“We are working to notify the affected individuals as fast as possible,” said Zach Denney, communications director for the Kansas Department of Revenue. “Due to the short timeframe imposed by the legislature, KDOR continues to review the number of affected credentials.”
Republican lawmakers have brushed aside criticism of the new law, with state Senate President Ty Masterson saying the measure “restores sanity in Kansas.”
“Kansas Democrats are for they/them,” Masterson said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for everyday Kansans, and protect women and girls across our state.”
The new law thrust Kansas to the forefront of a nationwide push by Republicans to roll back transgender rights, efforts that have intensified since President Donald Trump returned to office last year. Alongside conservative state lawmakers, the Trump administration has also moved to restrict trans people’s health care access and block them from serving in uniform.
The lawsuit’s two plaintiffs, transgender men identified as “Daniel Doe” and “Matthew Moe,” had changed their licenses to reflect their gender identities.
The complaint states that if the two are forced to get new licenses and use different bathrooms, they will risk being outed as transgender and could face harassment as a result. Losing access to those accommodations is also inconsistent with medical standards to treat gender dysphoria, the lawsuit states.
Transgender rights — and specifically the bathrooms transgender people are allowed to use — have been a contentious point of political campaigns and legislative sessions for a decade. The Kansas legislature previously passed an anti-trans bathroom bill in 2023, overriding a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. Since then, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) and the Kelly administration have sparred in court over its enforcement.
When the most recent bill reached her desk, Kelly vetoed it as well. In a Feb. 13 statement that followed, she called the legislation “poorly drafted.”
“I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable,” Kelly said.
The legislature voted to override the veto days later, and the law took effect Feb. 26.
LGBTQ+ advocates and politicians who oppose the law are especially concerned about the provision that allows private citizens to sue transgender people if they feel “aggrieved” by the behavior of a person perceived to be a member of the opposite sex in a public restroom or other multiuse space. If the citizen’s lawsuit succeeds, they can collect $1,000 in damages. The law also makes it a class-B misdemeanor if someone violates the bathroom requirements three times or more, meaning they could face a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
Seldin, the ACLU lawyer, said the provision gives people the right to sue others they believe are trans simply based on how they look.
State Rep. Mark Schreiber, the only Republican to vote against the bill, said he’s not convinced that drivers being allowed to change gender markers on their licenses caused harm to the state. The bathroom provision was also troubling, since monetary penalties could lead “people going around trying to catch somebody going in the wrong bathroom,” he said.
State Rep. Abi Boatman (D), Kansas’s only transgender lawmaker, said the law forced swift changes to her daily routines.
Boatman said she now walks the eight blocks from her apartment to the state Capitol in Topeka rather than driving. While there, she uses the family restroom because the new measure made it illegal for her to use any of the government building’s women’s restrooms, she added.
“This really has signaled to the trans community that they are not welcome in Kansas,” Boatman said.
Some transgender Kansans had begun receiving notification letters stating that their driver’s licenses were invalid as of late February. Others haven’t gotten any notification, which has sowed confusion, said Matthew Neumann, a transgender man and executive director of the LGBTQ Foundation of Kansas.
And some, like Ray, have gotten conflicting answers when checking the validity of their licenses.
When Ray visited the motor vehicle office on Feb. 27, he said, he had a long discussion with the clerk as they tried to determine whether his license was valid and how to proceed. She eventually issued him a new license with his birth sex listed as the gender.
Ray, who lives in rural western Kansas on a family farm with his partner and young son, began his transition in 2020. Getting his new driver’s license with an “M” designation the following year was a moment of “joy,” he recalled.
Now he was standing in the motor vehicle office holding a new license with an “F” for female.
“I felt just really disappointed,” Ray said. “I think that by that point I had passed the point of anger. It was disappointing to me. I kind of felt like I had lost those five years of work.”
“I know we’re going to get through this,” he continued, “but that’s what it felt like in that moment.”
Many of his trans and gay friends have fled to other cities and states as Kansas’s anti-trans laws have intensified, he said. But he chooses to stay on his family farm, which he called “the best place in the world.”
Gowen reported from Lawrence, Kansas. Somasundaram reported from Washington.
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