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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — In a significant legal challenge, two transgender men have initiated a lawsuit against the state of Kansas following the implementation of a new law that nullifies their driver’s licenses and approximately 1,700 others. These licenses had previously reflected individuals’ gender identities rather than their sex assigned at birth. The plaintiffs argue that this measure is “dehumanizing.”
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday, coinciding with the law’s enactment. The plaintiffs claim the law infringes upon their rights to privacy, personal autonomy, and due legal process as outlined in the Kansas Constitution. Additionally, they are contesting the law’s stringent enforcement of existing policies that prohibit transgender individuals from using public restrooms or other single-sex facilities aligning with their gender identities.
The plaintiffs seek to prevent the enforcement of this law, which has also invalidated the birth certificates of about 1,800 transgender individuals. The legal action was submitted to the district court in Douglas County, a predominantly liberal area within a state that generally leans conservative. This county is also home to the main campus of the University of Kansas.
The lawsuit asserts, “The Kansas Constitution prohibits the Kansas Legislature’s targeting of transgender individuals for this discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment.”
In a related context, the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 affirmed that the Kansas Bill of Rights guarantees a right to bodily autonomy, a ruling that safeguarded abortion rights.
The new law was enacted last week when Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. The judge handling the lawsuit, James McCabria, was appointed to the bench in 2014 by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, and Douglas County residents have voted three times since to keep him on the bench.
A 2023 state law, also enacted over Kelly’s veto, defined male and female by a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth. The Kansas Supreme Court hasn’t yet reviewed it.
This year’s law calls for stiff fines for cities, counties, public schools and state agencies that don’t restrict transgender people’s use of facilities, as well as fines and criminal prosecutions for transgender people who violate it. People also can sue trans individuals over alleged violations.
Republican legislators argued that the new law will protect girls and women and often described transgender women and girls as male.
“Kansans expect clarity, not confusion,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said after the law was enacted. “They expect leadership, not surrender to radical activists.”
The law bars any “sex” listing on driver’s licenses and birth certificates other than the one assigned at birth and invalidates existing records that don’t comply. The state has started notifying transgender people by mail that their licenses are invalid and they must get new ones immediately.
At least eight other states don’t allow transgender people to change one or both documents, but only Kansas has invalidated documents that were previously changed.
The two men suing over the new law are from Lawrence, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Kansas City, and represented by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. They’re identified as Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, saying they fear discrimination, harassment and violence if they don’t remain anonymous.