Kansas officials on Thursday invalidated more than 1,000 driver’s licenses and birth certificates belonging to transgender residents who had previously changed the gender markers on those documents.
The move enforces a sweeping new state law requiring all government identification and vital records to display individuals’ sex assigned at birth. The law also bars transgender residents from making gender changes on future driver’s licenses or birth certificates.
Affected Kansans must obtain new identification cards at their own expense.
It also expands those definitions to the state’s so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights,” requiring all multi-person restrooms, locker rooms, and other “private spaces” in public buildings to be used only by individuals whose biological sex matches that facility. Exceptions allow entry for custodial work, emergencies, or law enforcement.
The law further authorizes penalties—including fines of up to $1,000 for individuals who repeatedly enter facilities designated for another sex—and allows people who claim an invasion of privacy in such spaces to sue for damages.
Civil rights advocates say the measure endangers transgender residents and could expose them to harassment or violence.
Harper Seldin, a senior staff attorney with the LGBTQ and HIV Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the ACLU expects to file a lawsuit challenging the law by the end of the week.
Transgender Kansans were permitted to update their legal documents until 2023, when state Attorney General Kris Kobach sued to block those changes. The courts later lifted the block in 2025, restoring the right to change gender markers.
State lawmakers responded by advancing Senate Bill 244 early in 2026 after overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.
The new Kansas policy follows an escalating wave of state-level restrictions on transgender Americans over the past year. Since returning to office last year, President Donald Trump has issued several directives on transgender issues—including an order declaring the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and another excluding transgender athletes from women’s sports.
State officials said Kansans whose documents are now voided must pay to reapply for identification cards that reflect their sex assigned at birth.
Now, under the new statute, corrected documents must specify the individual’s sex at birth—as defined by reproductive anatomy and chromosomes—stripping away any previous change.