andros_rexTrans people in Kansas are being ordered to surrender their drivers licenses
The cruelty is the point.
roofuskit
“We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you.”
Yes I’m sure you fucking do.
If they try this shit in my state, I’d fucking sue.
I had surgery BECAUSE it would let me change my drivers license. I paid $5500 as a broke college student because I was getting turned down for jobs with that stupid “F.”
I don’t understand how any of this is legal. The constitution prohibits “ex post facto” laws - how can you revoke someone’s documentation when they complied with the laws as they were at the time?
𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍I’m currently outside the US but I’m pulling my hair out trying to renew my passport. I don’t even care what’s on it. The Nazi bastards don’t give a fuck, the cruelty is the point
I’ve been trying to revive my childhood passport from my birth country since I fully expect passports to be next
This letter reads to me like it is someone from the Kansas executive branch (run by Democrat Governor Laura Kelly) legitimately apologizing that they are bound by Republican made, veto-overridden law to cause this inconvenience, but maybe I’m being too generous
Nah, this is bipartisan cruelty. The Democratic governor maintained a list of trans people who changed their markers. How do you think they were able to send out these letters so fast? They already had a list of anyone that had changed their gender marker. That list was created on the order of a Democratic governor.
No. It is GOP cruelty. Nothing “bipartisan” about it. From a different article:
The new law takes effect on Thursday. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure, but the Legislature’s GOP supermajorities overrode it last week as Republican state lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued another round of measures to roll back transgender rights.
Kansas’ new law enjoyed nearly unanimous GOP support. It is the latest success in what has become an annual effort to further roll back transgender rights by Republicans in statehouses across the U.S., bolstered by policies and rhetoric from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Kelly supports transgender rights, but GOP lawmakers have overridden her vetoes three of the past four years. (emphases mine)
Nothing ambiguous about it. I would also draw your attention to the first line of the above letter itself:
House Substitute for Senate Bill 244, enacted by the Kansas Legislature overriding Governor Kelly’s veto, requires Kansas-issued drivers’ licenses and identification cards to reflect the credential holder’s sex at birth and directs the Division of Vehicles to comply with K.S.A. 77-207.
Generally speaking, governors do not personally compile healthcare-related lists. Any such list would be assembled by and come through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and with the Kansas state GOP supermajority passing the legislation making such lists mandatory, there would not be much the very obviously trans-friendly governor could do.
I genuinely do not see how you can lay GOP group evil at the feet on the one person clearly trying to do what she can to stop it.
It’s almost like you don’t want the GOP to get full credit for what the GOP supermajority is doing in Kansas to trans people.
EDITED to correct myself and add source
It’s almost like you’re completely ignorant of this and are "umm aktually"ing an actual trans person who pays attention to this stuff!
No shit the law was passed by a Republican legislature. And yes, the law was vetoed by the governor. But maybe you’re just one of those Blue MAGA types that assumes Dems can do no wrong. But a list of trans people in the state already existed. And that list wasn’t created as a result of this law. It was created by policies of the Vital Records office, which the governor controls. In fact, Kansas, with its Democratic governor, had a pre-made list of trans people ready to go, which not even Texas and Florida had!
…substack.com/…/kansas-secretly-spent-years-makin…
Whether by malice or ignorance matters little. Under the watch of a Democratic governor, the state went further than any other Republican state in having a records system that could instantly create a list of trans Kansas residents.
Yes, Republicans are the primary antagonists of trans folks. But Democrats are truthfully not much better. In fact, there are Democratic attorneys general in more than a dozen states that are currently ignoring their own state laws and refusing to enforce anti-discrimination laws. Many hospitals and clinics have been complying in advance with Trump’s illegal executive orders targeting trans healthcare, stopping services for children and adults. Doing so is a direct violation of anti-discrimination laws that LGBT activists spent decades fighting to pass. But the laws mean nothing if the attorneys general aren’t willing to actually enforce them.
A lot of Democrats have decided that sticking up for trans people is simply politically inconvenient. They won’t actively try to pass persecutory laws, but they won’t lift a finger to fight back against them either. The Kansas governor didn’t want the optics of explicitly signing a piece of bigoted legislation, but she also didn’t lift a finger to protect trans people. The very agencies she’s in charge of designed their records system so that it would be easy to find trans people, and it never occurred to the Democratic governor to try and do something about this.
So yes, this is bipartisan cruelty. Don’t be Blue MAGA and assume your side is innocent.
But maybe you’re just one of those Blue MAGA types that assumes Dems can do no wrong.
Far from it. After Kamala, and the Senate cave-in last year, and all they have NOT done, I’ll never vote non-screamingly progressive Dem again. The Dems are not even remotely sin-free here. And thank you for the additional information; you’re right, I did not know that.
But it’s not as black and white as you paint it. As tired as you must personally be of not having the supposedly good people do enough, I am tired of seeing people who are actually trying to do the right thing in their given circumstances constantly shat upon for not doing it ALL, while the people most guilty of all these egregious errors get a complete pass, or just a passing nod, as if it is up to the genuinely well-intentioned among us to corral all evil and somehow not up to the evildoers themselves to cut it the fuck out. I don’t know what kind of shit this governor has gotten for her pro-trans actions and vetos, but it’s definitely non-zero in a red state like Kansas, and I would not be surprised if she’s gotten death threats over her pro-trans stance.
Driving an infinitely fine line between good and perfect helps no one. The governor was at least working a veto, or trying to. Did she even know what her appointed secretary was doing? And it wasn’t just the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics (OVS) starting trans tracking in 2019; according to the blog you linked, the Kansas Division of Vehicles has been tracking trans people since 2007.
Representatives for the Division of Vehicles confirmed that, since legalizing driver’s license updates in 2007, the DOV has also tracked trans people. Like the OVS, the DOV created an internal marker that is specific to the process Kansas called “gender reclassification.” Similar to the vital records system, this trans-specific flag gives the DOV the ability to quickly create a list of trans people—an ability it recently utilized to send the revocation letters.
So the list that sent the letters came from the Dept of Vehicles itself, and was started a dozen years prior to Kelly attaining office.
If someone’s openly on my “side” I’m not going to shit on them for what they might not even personally be aware of, especially when death threats for being pro-trans have become the norm for public figures.
As for me, my own personal “side” is not MAGA or anti-MAGA, though these days it works out anti 100% of the time. My own personal “side” is 100% pro-people: living the way they want to live, loving the way they want to love, inhabiting the bodies they want to inhabit, and to support anyone who I think is at least trying to stand up for that, however imperfect and insufficient their efforts are at this moment in time.
And no. The current hostility toward anyone of a different identity is NOT bipartisan. It is primarily GOP. And while not all Dems are on board, that’s where the majority of your supporters are, because they sure as fuck aren’t on the GOP side, and as you have read, it is still the Kansas GOP supermajority that is rolling this shit out for Kansas like a monster truck without brakes. For all the hairs you’ve so carefully split, you still haven’t convinced me otherwise. But again, thank you for the additional information: on that I do stand corrected, and I do appreciate you taking the time and trouble to correct me on it.
EDITED to add blog quote and to remove unnecessarily inflammatory language
baltakateiFuck Kansas.
grimpy
MwaWe’ve been targeted by Nazis since at least 1933, but we’re always left out of history classes
Edit: this event is what gave us the banger quote “where they burn books, in the end they will burn humans too’”
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | 6 May 1933: Looting of the Institute of Sexology
On 6 May 1933, the Institute of Sexology, an academic foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of homosexual rights, was broken into and occupied by Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later the entire contents of the library were removed and burned.
Why would America allow an openly transphobic government into power like this?
Oh right…
samus12345Ultimately, the answer always goes back to capitalism by way of the pedophile billionaires that run the world.
“Those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds!”
“Yeah, naw, Imma stay here in Oz.”
Toto was even played by a bitch!
Just appeal and force them to prove you’re guilty of having the wrong gender on your id. It will be extremely difficult for them to do especially given the number of appeals that could happen almost at once.
Nice thought, but the law says “sex at birth”, they probably know it from social security records or whatever. And your “incorrect” license isn’t valid while waiting for appeals… and it’s not like they’d prioritize it anyways. Messed up situation.
Doesn’t matter they’d still have to prove it in court and that is going to eat huge parts of their budget and insane amounts of manpower diverted from actually running the state.
🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞they’d still have to prove it in cour
Bold assumption.
I’d like for you to be right and I hope you are, but I don’t think you are.
www.kslegislature.gov/li_2020/…/008_002_0059_k/
Such review shall be in accordance with the Kansas judicial review act. In the case of review of an order of suspension under K.S.A. 8-1001 et seq., and amendments thereto, or of an order of disqualification under subsection (a)(1)(D) of K.S.A. 8-2,142, and amendments thereto, the petition for review shall be filed within 14 days after the effective date of the order and venue of the action for review is the county where the administrative proceeding was held or the county where the person was arrested. In all other cases, the time for filing the petition is as provided by K.S.A. 77-613, and amendments thereto, and venue is the county where the licensee resides. The action for review shall be by trial de novo to the court. The court shall take testimony, examine the facts of the case and determine whether the petitioner is entitled to driving privileges or whether the petitioner’s driving privileges are subject to suspension, cancellation or revocation under the provisions of this act.
It’s a trial, they don’t have a choice unless they change the way suspensions and disqualifications work and in the mean time there’s probably going to be a group of lawyers working to get an injunction for overbredth and likely for speedy trial because of the volume of appeals.
You understand almost dead and dead are two totally different things correct? But no you’re right, let’s not try let’s just roll over and not use the options available. I’m sure that’ll end up well.
they don’t have a choice
Please forgive me for quoting myself from elsewhere:
The problem is that you respect and believe in words. The people currently in charge could give two fucks. Ultimately, words only have the power that we give them, so when those in charge ignore the Constitution, then the Contitution has no power.
[snip]
In the same way, there are rules and decorum and traditions in politics and revolve around the Constution and various bodies of legislature, et cetera. And so there’s nothing that ACTUALLY forces anyone to follow any of that except voluntary compliance or physical threat because policing bodies enforce things.
This is why the rich are free, largely, from most crimes. They aren’t enforced. And this is how our democracy crumbled. The Constitution hasn’t been repealed. It doesn’t have to be. It is simply ignored. Worse, those who claim to follow it shit on it and ignore it and throw it out.
So I’m afraid they do have a choice in the same way they have ignored due process and habeas corpus, as one tiny example.
Yeah nihilistic thought processes aren’t helpful. The only legal means of resistance is through the law and we most do it and do far honestly they’ve respected the process when push comes to shove because fascism has to pretend laws matter even when the law is dumb.
Can you name a time in recent history they’ve ignored going to court? I can’t. They’ve ignored the rulings at times but in this case you’re aiming for a class action to judicially overrule the legislation so they can ignore it all they want but the licenses would still revert back to being legal.
Except in the real world, you still lose your job after getting arrested and charged.
You’d have to be arrested for that first. Are you in the habit of being arrested on a day to say basis?
Are you high right now?
Would it matter if I was or are you just being a bigot?
Your comments are complete gibberish. Yes, people get arrested for driving without a valid license. You have to show your license when you get pulled over. This really isn’t that complicated buddy. They just voided the license of every trans person in the state. These people literally don’t have valid drivers licenses. People could still use their old license, but it would be no different from anyone else driving on an expired license.
I’m not really understanding why you’re having such difficulty understanding these very simple concepts. That’s why I assumed you’re high.
No they aren’t.
I never said people don’t get arrested for not having a valid license, I implied they need pretext to pull you over to find out your license isn’t valid.
I’m not understanding why you chose to be rude but you do you buddy that said you sound like an awful person if you can’t have a conversation without being a dick. Also, so that’s a yes on just being a bigot, cool.
You don’t think that Kansas cops will just profile anyone who looks even vaguely trans or GNC and demand to see ID?
I hope they do! That’s where they’ll get outrage. Striking outside marginalized communities is and always will be dangerous ground so arresting a dude that looks a bit too feminine or a woman who looks a tad too masculine is and I’m sorry to say this the exact thing you need to be hoping for.
But for the duration of the appeal you won’t have a valid drivers license, as it says in the letter, credentials are invalidated immediately. This is the pressure game. You can appeal and walk everywhere with no valid ID, or you can drive and risk getting pulled over and arrested for having an invalid ID and put into the wrong gender prison.
Done properly, it could result in a judge issuing a stay on the order and preventing it from being enforced while the results are worked out in court. That’s not uncommon.
Correct. Class action and emergency injunction.
starman2112It boils my fucking blood that my tax dollars are paying for this
MisterFrogThe general strike in Minneapolis shows what the working class can achieve.
From the provinces (Australia), I suggest you join whatever local movements exist.
I’m wishing you great success, because I worry what will be in store for us if the US falls even further into racism.
Stay strong friend
CileTheSaneWhat the fuck do the genitals I had at birth have to do with my ability to drive a car?
GalIf you read the text in front of you, you’d realize they do not think your gender affects your ability to drive. They just think the license is invalid due to the wrong gender being listed.
Republicans are obsessed with genitals. Maybe if we all send them a picture they can get it out of their system and finally grow up.
Regrettable_incidentGood idea, let’s all try it. Think we should send a pic of our assholes too?
RenatThis is a great propaganda* image. Yoink ⚒️
* word used in the neural sense
From an objective viewpoint I know these laws are being passed in the name of hate, but I wonder of there is a medical reason to have such information. However, it would be more appropriate on a carried medical emergency information card rather than ID as this information is often enough not helpful in proof of identity.
If I ever have to get an ID in Kansas, I’ll make sure to flash my genitals as proof. And I won’t shower for the week prior.
fossilesqueDon’t try to justify bigots.
This interpretation of my comment is far from accurate. But I should not expect less in this world of divisive ignorance.
dandelionHi!
Trans person here.
The answer to your question is no, there is no medical reason for the sex marker on the driver’s license. (Nor would it make sense to carry a medical card with your assigned sex marker on it.)
Assigned sex at birth is rarely relevant in medical contexts, and in fact is probably misleading (causing doctors to inappropriately treat the patient based on their assigned sex rather than their actual biological characteristics).
A trans woman is truly more like a cis woman than a cis man when it comes to medical needs, e.g. she will need mammograms like cis women, and (assuming here that trans women are on estrogen) they metabolize drugs like cis women and almost all of their biology is not different from a cis woman who lacks a uterus and ovaries.
A study from Oct 2025 found that within 12 months of taking HRT, trans people have a heart mass that matches their gender:
The troponin threshold to predict cardiovascular events is lower for women due to the greater cardiac mass typically seen in men.
Since estradiol and testosterone were not thought to directly impact cardiac mass, researchers expected that troponin would remain similar to individuals’ assigned gender at birth.
However, they found the opposite to be true.
The clinical research team found that troponin levels shifted towards the affirmed gender after 12 months of hormone therapy.
Troponin decreased in transgender women to a level not statistically different from cisgender women, but which was 78% lower than in cisgender men.
Another recent study published in Oct 2025 found that on the molecular level hormones change the protein biomarkers in cells:
erininthemorning.com/…/study-finds-trans-womens-b…
“For transgender women, we found gender affirming hormone therapy alters the levels of many protein biomarkers,” Novakovic said, noting that this could impact risk assessments for things like autoimmune disease and heart conditions. Usually, these assessments factor in any number of variables, including sex as well as lifestyle or genetic components.
“Feminizing GAHT [gender-affirming hormone therapy] skews the plasma proteome toward a cis-female profile,” the study concluded. It should be noted that people of any sex or gender can exhibit a vast and evolving spectrum of these biomarkers—there is no “one size fits all” model for biodiversity.
The more evidence that is collected the more we realize that biological sex is not fixed but instead the human body is plastic and the sex really does change, so it’s not really an exaggeration to say that trans women are biologically female in most medically relevant contexts.
The only exceptions I can think of are due to organs developing a certain way, e.g. trans men with a uterus still might technically have a rare chance of becoming pregnant or developing cervical cancers.
On the flip side, in rare cases, a trans woman (esp. one who transitions late and has a family history of prostate cancer) might develop a prostate cancer (fun fact: cis women have an organ similar to a prostate called the Skene’s gland that, like the prostate, produces ejaculate; it’s not a male-only organ), so that is one difference - trans women might need prostate exams that cis women wouldn’t need.
But for almost all medical contexts, trans people should be treated as their gender and not their assigned sex at birth. For trans folks who have been on HRT for >6 - 12 months, it is genuinely a risk to their health to view them as their assigned sex at birth.
EDIT: for what it’s worth, my doctor basically told me not to out myself to other doctors and this advice is not uncommonly given; he said the only thing I need to figure out in the future is possibly getting prostate exams when I’m much older - but even that is not clearly indicated given the treatment for prostate cancer is anti-androgens and estrogen, which I’ll have been on for decades before the screening would start for prostate cancers; the needs vary, a woman who transitions later in life and has a family history of prostate cancer will have a different need for prostate cancer screening than a trans woman who transitioned before puberty and has no family history of prostate cancers, for example.
why do we even need sex or gender marked on driver’s licences?
I guess so that the police can know whether to say “stop resisting ma’am” or “stop resisting sir” when they pull the driver from the vehicle and start beating them?
nah that can’t be it they don’t care about misgendering