Transgender Kansans are suing a new law that invalidates their driver’s licenses

Two transgender people in Kansas have filed a lawsuit to block a new state law that invalidates hundreds of civilian driver’s licenses by requiring them to display the holder’s natural gender rather than their own.

The law, which went into effect Thursday, allows violators to “surrender” their licenses to get new ones that match their natural sex.

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, voted for the legislation, but it was withdrawn by the Republican-led Legislature earlier this month.

“This law directly attacks the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” Monica Bennett, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said in a statement. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government exploitation and persecution.”

The two plaintiffs, identified by pseudonyms, Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and block its implementation.

The law deprives transgender Kansans “of their ability to drive vehicles or use identification without notice or an opportunity for a hearing,” the lawsuit says.

The law also applies to birth certificates, declaring that those that do not correspond to a person’s natural sex are invalid; and requires that bathrooms, locker rooms and other “private areas of high occupancy” in government buildings be designated for use based on the biological sex of individuals, subjecting stiff penalties to government agencies that violate the requirement.

The law allows people who are “aggrieved” by the presence of a member of the opposite sex in single-sex spaces such as restrooms to sue them for $1,000 in damages.

State officials estimate that about 1,700 licenses will be canceled and 1,800 birth certificates will be reissued, the Associated Press reported.

The lawsuit claims the new law violates “guarantees of personal liberty, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and free speech” under the Kansas state constitution. The complaint also says the plaintiffs and other transgender people in Kansas will be “immediately harmed” if they are not allowed to drive on their current licenses or use restrooms that match their gender identity.

The complaint says the law prohibits plaintiffs from using restrooms in public buildings and will allow those “victimized” to sue whether they use restrooms that match their gender or their natural gender.

If the plaintiffs “continue to use the restrooms that have been used for years without incident, they will be breaking the law, they can be fined or charged with a class B violation, and they can be sued by anyone who is ‘offended’ by their presence,” the complaint said.

“If they start using toilets associated with their gender at birth, they will be forcibly outed as transgender, they may be abused and targeted for violence, and they may be sued by ‘victims’ because they think they are in the wrong toilet,” it added.

In a statement opposing the bill, Kelly called the law “poorly written” and said it would have unintended consequences, such as prohibiting heterosexuals from visiting family members in shared dormitories or nursing homes.

“I believe that the Legislature should not get into the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom, but focus on how they can make Kansans able to pay,” said Kelly.

The Kansas law comes as state legislatures across the country have sought to target transgender people in recent years.

According to the ACLU, more than 70 bills targeting members of the LGBTQ community were passed into law in states across the country last year.

Many laws include banning transgender athletes from playing in sports leagues or using school restrooms that match their gender identity.

At the national level, President Donald Trump and his administration have supported policies targeting transgender people, including a state-level ban on transgender athletes playing in gender-conforming leagues. The US Department of Health and Human Services has also sought to ban transgender-related care for children nationwide.

In November, the conservative-majority Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with a plan to reduce the gender labels on US passports to biological sex, not gender identity. Early last year, a court allowed the administration to implement its policy barring transgender people from serving in the military.