21 July 2023
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – It will be months before transgender Kansans find out whether they’ll be allowed to change gender markers on their driver’s licenses.
According to Shawnee County District Court records, on Thursday, a judge set a hearing for Nov. 1 to consider Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s temporary injunction against the Department of Revenue. Earlier this month, the judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from allowing people to change driver’s license gender markers.
While she’s not named in the lawsuit, Kobach also repudiated the actions of Gov. Laura Kelly for continuing to allow such changes, despite the new anti-trans law.
Before the injunction, the governor’s office said it would continue to allow transgender people to change the markers for sex on birth certificates and driver’s licenses. The office said lawyers in its administration concluded that doing so doesn’t violate the new law.
Earlier this year, the Kansas Legislature passed Senate Bill 180, also known as the Women’s Bill of Rights. The law, which took effect July 1, defines a person’s sex as male or female, based on the “biological reproductive system” identified at birth, applying that definition to any state law or regulation.