New law puts Kansas at vanguard of denying trans identities on drivers
licenses, birth certificates
[February 23, 2026]
By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s
licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth
certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed
restrictions in other states on listing gender identities in government
documents.
The new law takes effect Thursday. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed
the measure but the Legislature's GOP supermajorities overrode it last
week as Republican state lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued another
round of measures to roll back transgender rights.
The bill prohibits documents from listing any sex other than the one
assigned birth and invalidates any that reflect a conflicting gender
identity. Florida, Tennessee and Texas also don't allow driver's
licenses to reflect a trans person's gender identity, and at least eight
states besides Kansas have policies that bar trans residents from
changing their birth certificates.
But only Kansas' law requires reversing changes previously made for
trans residents. Kansas officials expect to cancel about 1,700 driver's
licenses and issue new birth certificates for up to 1,800 people.
“It tells me that Kansas Republicans are interested in being on the
vanguard of the culture war and in a race to the bottom,” said
Democratic state Rep. Abi Boatman, a transgender Air Force veteran
appointed in January to fill a vacant Wichita seat.
Kansas' new law enjoyed nearly unanimous GOP support. It is the latest
success in what has become an annual effort to further roll back
transgender rights by Republicans in statehouses across the U.S.,
bolstered by policies and rhetoric from President Donald Trump's
administration.
Trump and other Republicans attack research-backed conclusions that
gender can change or be fluid as radical “gender ideology." GOP
lawmakers in Kansas regularly describe transgender girls and women as
male and as they say they're protecting women.
Like fellow Republicans, Kansas Senate Majority Leader Chase Blaisi said
Trump’s reelection and other GOP victories in 2024 show that voters want
“to return to common sense" on gender.
"When I go home, people believe there are just two sexes, male and
female,” Blasi said. “It’s basic biology I learned in high school.”
Kelly supports transgender rights, but GOP lawmakers have overridden her
vetoes three of the past four years. Kansas bans gender-affirming care
for minors and bars transgender women and girls from female sports
teams, kindergarten through college.
Transgender people can't use public restrooms, locker rooms or other
single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities, though
there was no enforcement mechanism until this year's law added tough new
provisions.
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Small transgender and LGBTQ rights flags sit on the desks of Kansas
state Reps. Tobias Schlingensiepen, right, D-Topeka, and Kirk
Haskins, left, also D-Topeka, in the Kansas House chamber,
protesting a new law that will prevent transgender people from
changing their driver's licenses and birth certificates to reflect
their gender identities and nullify past changes, Thursday, Feb. 19,
2026, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Transgender people have said carrying IDs that misgender them opens
them to intrusive questions, harassment and even violence when they
show it to police, merchants, and others.
In 2023, Republicans halted changes in Kansas birth certificates and
driver's licenses by enacting a measure ending the state's legal
recognition of trans residents' gender identities. Though the law
didn't mention either document, it legally defined male and female
by a person's “biological reproductive system” at birth.
However, a lawsuit led to state court decisions that last year
permitted driver's license changes to resume.
Legislators in at least seven other states are considering bills to
prevent transgender people from changing one or both documents,
according to a search using the bill-tracking software Plural.
But none would reverse past changes.
The extra step by Kansas legislators reinforces a message “that
trans people aren’t welcome,” said Anthony Alvarez, a transgender
University of Kansas student who works for a pro-LGBTQ rights group.
Kansas is likely to notify transgender residents by mail that their
driver's licenses are no longer valid and they need to go to a local
licensing office to get a new one, said Zachary Denney, spokesperson
for the agency that issues them.
The Legislature hasn't earmarked funds to cover the cost, so each
person will pay it — $26 for a standard license.
Alvarez already has had four IDs in four years as he's changed his
name, changed his gender marker and turned 21.
He's always planned to stay in his native Kansas after getting his
history degree this spring.
But, he said, “They’re just making it harder and harder for me to
live in the state that I love.”
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