Don't get it twisted this attack on trans people in Kansas (how did they identify the people they sent those letters to? They have a list, the monsters.) is a trial, a test. Let them get away with it they will move on to the next smallest group they feel they could target without public backlash.
That is how this works.
Are you an "LGB" person ?
Are you enjoying an upstanding gay marriage with a white picket fence?
Are you a black American (oh wow) but not (oh no no) an immigrant ?
Are you reading the room ?
We're next! We are next.
It's kind of obvious that what the Republican Kansas legislator would like to do is make being LGBT illegal. I find it somewhat promising that they have done something technical, creepy, and obnoxious instead. But they are pushing that boundary in the most obvious ways.
They are still too scared to do what they really want. The public ought to be disgusted.
I am.
I'm also very curious if any cis people got the letter by mistake. It seems likely.
Nearly all of the people who have been harassed in public over restrooms rules tend to be cis women who look a little butch or like a bowtie or something.
This isn't a flaw it's a feature. Because part of the purpose is to make a gender dress and behavior code for adults.
No men shall wear pink or nail polish. No women shall have whiskers on their chin or leave the house without a layer of foundation.
The GOVERNMENT will tell you (yes you) how to be your gender correctly.
That's all this is. It's bullshit.
The general public is mad at the ruling class, mad at the powerful and wealthy -- I think some of these people lean into this kind of thing in hopes that it will quell the cries for retribution.
There are other forces at work, but very cynically it is clear that the right is desperately looking for anyone who can take the blame for the gross decadence and inequality.
If they weren't doing this their only political activity would be defending rich MFers from higher taxes.
"Its the predatory financiers and their friends... wait no only some of their friends!"
The filthy rich have always used a simple formula for wealth extraction, enforcing borders and division of various means among communities, and claiming them as revenue.
@futurebird my best guess, the list is compiled from historical records of which Kansas residents have gotten the gender marker changed on their ID.
Monstrous regardless.
There are people who are cis who have had the gender marker changed on their IDs to correct administrative errors.
They have gotten caught up in the current anti-trans moral panic too.
From Arizona last year: https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/birth-certificate-controversy-keeps-mesa-14-year-old-off-boys-basketball-team
Sorry, are we in a cartoon? Is this world actually an early Nickelodeon toon and this whole timeline is a prelude to this fantastical premise?
@futurebird whether or not cis people got sent the letter, they sure as hell will be pulled over in 'random' traffic stops by especially hostile cops. women will get this worst, of course. and don't be surprised is cops start intentionally targeting cis women they want to to trap in a less public space
cops already get away with literal murder on the basis of them having 'suspicions' about someone. you know what will happen if they're given more things to get 'suspicious' about
@futurebird Legally I'm still a woman and I still have my birth name on my ID which is unmistakably female.
I also reached a point in my transition where 99% of people will call me Sir.
I wait to see when I'm stopped from using the women's bathroom just to show that I was born one and never legally changed gender so what's the problem your honor?
@futurebird I read an account around the time of the presidential election, of Vance telling a journalist, on the record, that what he really wants is for women to be legally subordinate to their (presumably mandatory) husbands, but that he recognized that that wasn't an acceptable thing to advocate for in the then-current political atmosphere
clearly they have been working hard to change that
@futurebird … Yup, and following those groups (or interleaved) it will be Jews, Women (all Women: in this eschatology they're just livestock for breeding), non-Christian (the right kind of Christian) men, and political dissidents.
If they get their way, the USA after the Great Downsizing will have about a third of its current population, and the electorate will be less than 10% of that because the rest will be chattels of one type or another.
@cstross @futurebird
Speaking of electorate, cancelling people's driving licenses is an attack on that now, isn't it
Most definitely, the AfD is just biding its time until our conservative party drops into their laps. Our current chancellor is a weak fool with more ego than sense.
When all of the women are either struggling housekeepers or obedient wives. When all of the men are either too poor and overworked to think about anything political or safe in their all white christian men's only board rooms new targets will still be needed.
Do you not like going to church? Do you want to listen to the wrong music? Think a tattoo is nice? Do you like foreign cartoons from Japan?
The only person who might be safe is Ted Cruz. Maybe.
... Like the xkcd were a Dr asks a guy how much it hurts "on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all, and 10 is the worst pain you can imagine". The guy curls up in a ball, and the guy's partner explains "he has a very good imagination".
Scarier to you, as you can imagine much worse than I can.
@futurebird In 2024, I had been typing "... and we're fourth on the list". That list:
1. Trans folk
2. Non-americans with unclear legal status.
3. Those with legal status, but not-American.
4. The gays.
I never quite settled on what 5/6 should be, but little surprise, "Jewish folk" was was there.
Next, they will forbid trans people to eat. They have already made a step towards that by sabotaging their ability to work. They want deaths.
@futurebird they likely generated the list from social media images and declarations they considered worth adding to the list (a grey area), then from that list they found the ones with addresses...
It's just data that they connect. It's imperfect. Imperfick.🙃
Fun thing to do in the US is a change of address form backdated. Keeps them busy at one level.
No, that's correct (I'm a KS resident)--the DMV records show which licenses previously had the gender info changed, same for the birth certificate data with another agency.
The KS Supreme Court had previously ruled that changing one's gender on gov records had to be allowed, and this new law apparently does what's required to legally ban it again. While several other states also ban this, KS is the first state to claw back previously issued DLs and birth certificates.
BTW They sent the letters out on the 23rd and the law took effect immediately on the 26th with no grace period to allow people to comply, so they now do not have a valid driver's license.
Driving without a valid license carries a fine and possible jail time. There is no doubt they deliberately wanted to punish trans people who had changed their DL, by making it impossible to drive legally until they get a new DL, which takes time to process.
(paywalled but can be bypassed by going into Reader view): https://www2.ljworld.com/news/state-region/2026/feb/23/thousands-of-kansas-drivers-licenses-birth-certificates-set-to-become-invalid-this-week-as-new-transgender-law-takes-effect/
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed restrictions in other states on listing gender identities in government documents. The new law takes effect Thursday. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure […]
@leadore @futurebird Lea do you think they also scooped up transfolk from other states who had valid ID and who had earlier move into KS? Or is this totally a matter of what can be seen in KS govt. records?
Really shitty thing to do. Serves only to endanger people.
Since they don't have authority over what other states do or what other state's licenses show, this should only be relevant to KS licenses and KS government records. At least I haven't heard or read anything indicating otherwise.
BUT another thing to be aware of is that this bill also bans anyone from using a bathroom marked as for other than one's gender assigned at birth. IMO this is just as bad if not worse. I expect bad things to happen because there are always those people out there who want to make bad things happen.
I was actually surprised to learn that the bill was going to invalidate documents because it was always called "the bathroom bill" and all I ever read or heard about it was about the bathroom aspect of it. I don't think I ever once heard anything about driver's licenses and birth certificates being invalidated.
It's all about taking away trans rights and women's rights and implementing christian nationalism.
I don't even understand where is the need for stating a person genre in his driving license. What's the point? The only data that you need is a photo, a name, and a list of which kinds of vehicles you are authorized to drive.
Eye color? Hair color? Height? What's the point? Can't you wear colored contact lenses if you drive? Dye your hair? Wear high heeled shoes? Pointless. Genre, of course, is the same.
In Spain, none of that data is displayed in any kind of ID. Instead, we have the birth date, probably pointless, too; but at least is something that really identifies you and you can't change.
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