24 June 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT)– The ACLU of Kansas released a statement late Friday evening, just minutes after a motion was filed to reverse a federal court order that requires the state to issue corrected birth certificates with accurate gender markers to transgender Kansans.
The federal court order was required in the 2019 case of Foster v. Andersen. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed the motion, requesting permission to no longer follow the order, because of the passage of a new anti-trans state law, SB 180.
Kobach is set to hold a press conference with several Republican legislators on the new law on Monday.
“No matter how much Attorney General Kobach and extremists in our state legislature may wish to, they cannot erase the fundamental protections the Constitution guarantees to every single LGBTQ+ Kansan,” said Micah Kubic, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas. “Mr. Kobach should rethink the wisdom—and the sheer indecency—of this attempt to weaponize his office’s authority to attack transgender Kansans just trying to live their lives.”
The new state law, which goes into effect July 1, defines biological sex in areas, like restrooms and locker rooms. The bill does not include any enforcement provisions, nor does it create any new crimes or civil offenses, which has created a wave of panic among LGBTQ+ Kansans and advocates across the state.
In Foster, a federal district court required the state to issue corrected birth certificates with accurate gender markers to transgender people born in Kansas. The lawsuit, filed in 2018, had challenged Kansas’s policy prohibiting corrected birth certificates as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiffs in the case were represented by a team from the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national civil rights organization that focuses on LGBTQ+ communities.
In a release Friday, Lambda Legal promised to “vigorously oppose this gimmick by Attorney General Kobach… to nullify a binding, years-old federal judgment. In the meantime, lest there be any doubt, the state’s Office of Vital Statistics cannot refuse applications to correct gender markers.”
“Today’s action represents yet another unnecessary and cruel move to target the transgender community with animus and discrimination for political gain. We will vigorously oppose this gimmick by Attorney General Kobach. Let us be clear, Lambda Legal will not allow the Attorney General to nullify a binding, years-old federal judgment. In the meantime, lest there be any doubt, the state’s Office of Vital Statistics cannot refuse applications to correct gender markers.”