Trans Kansans win court ruling to change the gender on their IDs
Link to Full Article (https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2025-06-13/trans-kansans-win-court-ruling-to-change-the-gender-on-their-ids)
NPR - KCUR | By Zane Irwin, Dylan Lysen
Published June 13, 2025 at 12:48 PM CDT
The Kansas Court of Appeals decision reverses a district court order that prohibited transgender people from changing driver's licenses to reflect their gender identity.
For the first time in nearly two years, transgender Kansans will once again be able to change the gender marker on their state-issued driver's license.
A panel of three judges on the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision by Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson that temporarily blocked the changes. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's administration later agreed to stop changing IDs.
The unanimous ruling found that Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach had not satisfied the legal requirements to block the Kansas Department of Revenue from accepting gender marker changes without a full trial on the matter.
D.C. Hiegert, a Civil Liberties Legal Fellow for the ACLU of Kansas, said in a statement that the ruling shows Kobach's lawsuit failed to prove changing gender markers on IDs causes any harm.
"Being required to use a license with the wrong gender marker has already meant that transgender Kansans have been outed against their consent in their daily lives," Hiegert said.
Kobach's office has 30 days to appeal the ruling.
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