Kansas judge orders state to stop changing sex listings on trans drivers' licenses

A Kansas judge issued an order Monday that prohibits the state from allowing transgender drivers to change the sex listed on their driver's licenses. 

The order comes as part of a lawsuit filed three days earlier by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), who sued two members of the Democratic administration for what he claimed were violations of a new law that took effect July 1. 

The new law mandates that a person’s sex be defined as male or female and that it be based on the “biological reproductive system” identified at birth. The state would be required to use these designations when enforcing any law or regulation.

Ahead of July 1, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) announced that Kansas’s motor vehicles division, which is housed in the Department of Revenue, would continue allowing changes to driver's licenses so that trans people’s gender identities can match what is listed on their licenses. 

Kobach argued that that practice would violate the new law, which he saw as prohibiting sex changes listed on licenses and reversing previous changes to licenses made. Kelly’s office said that attorneys at the parent department do not agree with Kobach’s assessment and that the governor’s office was working on a response to the judge’s order.

District Judge Teresa Watson’s order will be in effect for two weeks, but she can then extend the order.

In the order, she said changes to licenses can cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to law enforcement efforts, since driver's licenses are often used to identify criminals. 

“Licenses are used by law enforcement to identify criminal suspects, crime victims, wanted persons, missing persons and others,” Watson wrote. “Compliance with state legal requirements for identifying license holders is a public safety concern."

In the last four years while the practice was permitted, 400 Kansans chose to change the sex listed on their licenses, the Associated Press (AP) reported. This year, however, ahead of the law taking effect, four times the monthly number of people have changed their sexes, as advocacy groups warned that it was likely to be more difficult after July 1. 

While laws targeting trans people have been on the rise in states around the country, most states still allow trans people to change their sex on their driver's licenses or birth certificates to be consistent with their gender identities.

The AP reported that Montana and Tennessee have policies against changing those documents, and Oklahoma restricts changing birth certificates. 

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.