Kansas will no longer change transgender people’s birth certificates to reflect their gender identities.

Kansas will no longer change transgender people’s birth certificates to reflect their gender identities, the state health department said Friday, citing a new law that prevents the state from legally recognizing those identities.

The decision from the state Department of Health and Environment makes Kansas one of a handful of states that won’t change transgender people’s birth certificates. It already was among the few states that don’t change the gender marker on transgender people’s driver’s licenses.

Those decisions reverse policies that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration set when she took office in 2019. They came in response to court filings by conservative Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach to enforce the new state law. Enacted by the GOP-controlled Legislature over Kelly’s veto, it took effect July 1 and defines male and female based only on the sex assigned to a person at birth.

  • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
    22·
    10 months ago

    The main issue with these specific legal documents though is that often if you can’t change your birth cert you can’t change your passport or driver’s license and those two things are way more impactful.

    Travelling as a trans person can be incredibly scary. If you look, sound and act like something not listed in the sex category of your documents there’s a solid chance that your documents will be treated as suspicious or if you happen to be in a place where people aren’t shy about being bigoted it gives an avenue that immediately flags you as trans can offer people the pretext to detain, harass and abuse you or to deny you services. Being strip or cavity searched by airport security to sate their personal curiosities is a real threat.

    Being as invisible as possible offers safety to trans people from bigotry particularly during vulnerable moments of dealing with authorities. If you have physically transitioned then some times you can’t pass as your birth gender anymore which means your documents, adhereing to some sort of perfunctory definition of sex can make you actually less safe. It’s not about “feelings”.