OVERLAND PARK — Wednesday marked the first day in two years that transgender Kansans were able to change the gender markers on their drivers licenses after the Kansas Supreme Court denied Attorney General Kris Kobach’s appeal in a long legal battle.
For Jessie Lawson, her driver’s license was the last document to change. She updated her birth certificate before a federal judge halted modifications, and her Social Security card and passport before President Donald Trump’s executive order stated the federal government only recognizes two genders.
“Everything has been updated with the correct gender marker except for my driver’s license, which this guy won’t let us do,” Lawson said.
Lawson didn’t have the proper paperwork to change her driver’s license before Kobach sued the Kansas Department of Revenue for allowing transgender Kansans to change their gender markers. He argued they weren’t complying with Senate Bill 180, which defined women by reproductive
ability.
In 2023, Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson issued a temporary injunction blocking such changes. KDOR and the American Civil Liberties Union appealed, and the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned Watson’s injunction in June.
Kobach appealed the ruling, but the Kansas Supreme Court declined to hear the case last week.
“We look forward to KDOR resuming gender marker changes on driver’s licenses at the earliest possible time,” said Monica Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas, in a news release.
Lawson had an appointment at the Andover Department of Motor Vehicles for Monday, but was told the DMVs hadn’t been given the go-ahead. A KDOR spokesperson on Monday told Kansas Reflector the agency was waiting for signed paperwork from the court.
“This is so heart-wrenching,” Lawson said on Tuesday when there was no clear timeline. “These people have no idea what this means to us.”
That wasn’t the first time Lawson was told to wait — in June, she spent the morning at the DMV before being informed of Kobach’s plan to appeal.
“Every little victory is a breath of fresh air, and the fact that this is happening in Kansas is mind-boggling,” Lawson said. “I need to get on this right now because they’re going to pull that special session in November and they’re going to modify SB 180 to include blocking licenses for the rest of time.”
Statehouse Republicans are pushing for a special session in early November.
Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins originally pushed the special session to gerrymander U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids — the only Democratic, female, and Native American representative from Kansas — out of office.
But after the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling, they’ve added a goal to amend SB 180 to bar transgender people from changing the gender markers on their drivers licenses.
“ Attorney General Kobach has urgently requested that the Legislature call a special session to address an issue that he considers even more important than redistricting,” Masterson wrote in a letter.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly called Masterson’s letter “political theater.”
Brittany Jones, the president of Kansas Family Voice — a conservative Christian organization — supported Masterson and Hawkins’ quest for a special session.
“The highest court in our state should not allow the confusion of the age to cloud the clarity of our most basic public documents — like driver’s licenses,” Jones said in a news release.
Lawson is tentatively happy about the change. She’s worried that the special session will lead to KDOR adopting a policy similar to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s regulation in which birth certificates that have already been changed remain valid but any new copies “must reflect the sex assigned at birth.”
She’s also worried that a change to SB 180 would embolden anti-trans people.
“I take every win where I can get it,” Lawson said. “Everything you read in the news is always like they’re hammering on trans rights, they’re taking our rights away.”
