The number of people officially changing their gender in Kansas jumped more than 300% this year ahead of a new state law that legally erases their ability to identify with a gender other than the sex assigned to them at birth.
The legislation is part of a raft of measures lawmakers across the U.S. have passed to roll back transgender rights. It has provisions meant to restrict transgender people’s use of restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities and applies to a person’s identity listed on state documents such as birth certificates and driver’s licenses.
The attorney general even indicated that the flurry of last-minute changes by transgender people has been for naught: He says the law requires the state to undo any changes that have been made to official documents. With the legal climate uncertain, the nonprofit legal aid group Kansas Legal Services and LGBTQ+ rights advocates have run seminars for transgender people on how to change their documents. Both birth certificates and driver’s licenses list “sex,” which the new state law defines as a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth.
The state motor vehicle department reported this week that 161 people have changed their gender identity on their driver’s licenses so far this year, an average of 27 a month. That’s an increase of 384% over the average of 5 1/2 per month from July 2019 through 2022. Almost 400 people have changed their driver’s licenses since July 2019.