Red State Residents In Chaos After Lawmakers Yank Their Driver’s Licenses, Birth Certificates | EUROtoday

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Overnight, tons of of individuals throughout one crimson state have been out of the blue left with out authorized identification.

Transgender individuals dwelling in Kansas started receiving letters this week notifying them that driver’s licenses and delivery certificates that didn’t match their intercourse assigned at delivery could be invalid beginning on Thursday.

The sudden revocation of legally obtained IDs was the results of a brand new anti-trans legislation that was enacted after state lawmakers overrode the Democratic governor’s veto final week. The measure went into impact nearly instantly after it handed — an uncommon transfer in a state the place new legal guidelines normally take impact on July 1 — providing no probability for individuals to return into compliance with the legislation.

The new legislation reportedly stripped roughly 1,500 transgender Kansans of their driver’s licenses, and one other 1,800 delivery certificates are additionally affected.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Harper Seldin, a senior employees legal professional with the American Civil Liberties Union National LGBTQ+ Project, informed HuffPost. “It’s not clear from the letter what it means to have an invalid license.”

The vagueness and the novelty of the legislation imply that trans individuals in Kansas are scrambling to determine what subsequent steps they will take, and the long-term impacts of individuals out of the blue shedding their authorized identification have but to be realized. But the truth that Kansas legislators rushed to ship the letters lower than two weeks after overruling the governor’s veto makes it clear what lawmakers’ actual objective is: chaos, confusion and panic.

It’s not instantly clear, as an example, what occurs if a transgender Kansan will get pulled over by a police officer whereas driving.

“It puts folks in an impossible position,” Seldin stated. “People who got this letter on Thursday still had to go to work on Friday. What are they supposed to do?” He stated a number of the affected individuals have been checking authorities web sites to see if their licenses are nonetheless legitimate.

Not solely are the affected trans individuals left with no authorized solution to drive, however this will even impression transgender individuals’s capability to do the myriad issues that might require identification. Without a sound type of ID, trans individuals in Kansas may very well be barred from on a regular basis actions like filling out employment paperwork, getting on a airplane, shopping for a bottle of wine or opening a checking account. Then there’s the truth that Kansas is among the 36 states that require picture IDs to vote, doubtlessly creating new boundaries to voting within the months earlier than the upcoming midterm elections.

“This law is unnecessary and dangerous. When it comes to identification documents, transgender people use them for the same reasons as anyone else – IDs allow us the freedom to travel, work, and drive. And just like everyone else, our IDs need to match who we are so that we can simply move through our lives without issue,” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the senior vice chairman of public engagement campaigns on the Trevor Project, a nationwide LGBTQ+ youth help group, stated in a press release to HuffPost.

“This law is meant to cause fear and confusion, but I want every transgender person in Kansas to know that there is a coalition of leaders, legal experts, and advocates fighting back.”

Kansas’ first-of-its-kind legislation represents the fruits of years of conservative lawmakers attacking transgender individuals and dealing to erase them from public life. “SB 244 is a sweeping law that has the goal of pushing transgender people out of civil society by making it impossible for them to be themselves in public spaces,” stated Seldin. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on Friday in opposition to the state, asking for a halt to the coverage.

Not solely does the legislation retroactively invalidate licenses and delivery certificates that have been obtained legally, nevertheless it additionally prohibits transgender individuals from utilizing the toilet that matches their gender identification in authorities buildings, with civil and prison penalties for violations. The new measure may also be enforced by most of the people, because it permits people to sue for alleged violations.

“The point of these laws is to make it impossible for trans people to be themselves and to know what to do to keep themselves safe,” Seldin added.

The Republican Party is at present within the grip of a fake ethical panic about trans individuals. A record-breaking 1,022 anti-trans payments have been launched across the nation in 2025, with GOP-led states main the pack. So far this 12 months, a whopping 711 have already been dropped at legislative flooring in 41 totally different states.

The assaults on the trans group are coming from the federal authorities as effectively. On his first day again in workplace, Donald Trump signed an government order declaring that there are solely two non-changeable sexes, and the State Department halted passport purposes with the “X” gender marker.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas see the coverage as one other tradition conflict battle they’ve received. After the legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly (D) to enact the legislation, Republican state Sen. Ty Masterson launched a press release saying Kelly’s veto was “dangerous” and “would have forced our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters to share their bathrooms with biological men in government buildings. Kansas Democrats are for They/Them. I will continue to fight for you, and protect women and girls across our state.”

Republicans could also be hoping they may solely terrorize trans individuals with these insurance policies for identification. Still, human rights advocates are warning that SB 244 is not going to solely hurt trans individuals but additionally different marginalized teams.

“Forcing people into the wrong bathrooms, stripping them of accurate IDs, and allowing government-sanctioned harassment doesn’t make anyone safer,” Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, stated in a press release after the legislation handed. “It targets transgender Kansans for no reason and will undoubtedly impact many others who are targeted with animus whether or not they are transgender.”

Seldin stated that pausing the legislation’s enactment so that folks have time to verify their identification complies with the legislation would solely clear up the authorized situation — not the uncertainty and nervousness the legislation has prompted.

“Even for folks who do bring themselves into compliance, it puts trans people in immense danger,” he stated.

“Trans people who have licenses that have a sex marker that doesn’t match how they present because it matches their sex assigned at birth, that outs them as transgender immediately,” he stated. “It subjects them to scrutiny, to violence, to harassment.”