When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it sent shock waves across the nation. How was it that the federal government was depriving women of their hard-won right to make decisions about their own bodies? What kind of dark age was descending upon us? It is safe to say that times have not gotten better since then, but now there is another kind of bodily autonomy crisis upon us. Earlier this year, the Kansas state legislature passed a blatantly transphobic new law which forbids transgender people from using public restrooms associated with their gender identity on government property. The law says individuals may receive a warning on their first violation, but for a second violation, they are required to pay a $1,000 fine. For a third violation, they receive a Class B misdemeanor, which in Kansas is punishable by up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine.
The transphobic law also deems state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers invalid, which was implemented by letters sent to about 1,700 trans people across the state of Kansas in February. There was no grace period included, meaning that their licenses were invalidated immediately, and they had no time to even get to the Kansas Division of Vehicles to replace them. Driving without a valid license would put them at risk of a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. To be clear, this means that the licenses of 1,700 people were taken away from them essentially overnight, leaving them stranded with no easy way of replacing them. This was an act of sheer hatred targeting a group of people that have done nothing to deserve such treatment.
The bill was unfortunately able to pass despite a veto from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a cisgender woman who has shown herself to be an ally to the trans community. In the statement Kelly gave on the veto override by the state legislature, she expressed sincere disappointment in the outcome. She noted that while Kansans had elected government officials to focus on priorities like “education, job creation, housing and grocery costs,” they were instead foolishly focusing on this “manufactured problem.” I wholeheartedly agree with Kelly’s phrasing there — it ‘is’ a manufactured problem. Transgender people in Kansas and beyond pose no clear threats to other people when they use bathrooms that align with their gender identity or when they drive their cars to work. It is clear that the Kansas government is fabricating a problem here, as there is no concrete evidence to back it up.
Trans Liberty, a political action committee fighting for trans rights, issued a historic statewide evacuation order the day the law was passed, urging trans Kansans to flee the state. Trans Liberty has supported many people in these dire times, including giving financial assistance to someone who couldn’t get to work without a valid driver’s license and was at risk of being evicted. One of the matters Trans Liberty Chief of Operations David Dodds has been asked to advise on is where Kansans fleeing the state should move, and he has recommended the state of Colorado because of its legislative protections for trans people and the large trans community in Denver. The issue is, though, that despite being bordering states, a trip from Kansas to Colorado can be hundreds of miles away, depending on which part of the state one begins and ends travel in.
It is the year 2026, and these people are having to flee their home because of a law blatantly discriminating against them. If that’s not a human rights violation, then I don’t know what is. And, while Kansas has been a hotspot for anti-trans legislation, transphobia has become a national issue under the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump has passed multiple executive orders as president restricting access to accurate federal identity documents, threatening to take away federal funding for gender-affirming care and erasing trans history on federal websites and in schools. Thus, removing trans people from public life wherever he can has become one of Trump’s harmful pet projects.
The United States, and Kansas in particular, is getting more and more dangerous for trans people to live in under these laws. And, while we can idealistically make plans to vote transphobic legislators and presidents out in the future, trans people need our help now. Fortunately, there are frontline organizations seeking to support trans people in these trying times, including the aforementioned Trans Liberty. Trans Liberty has initiated Project Lifeboat, which they describe as an “emergency response for trans Americans in crisis.” They are funding the evacuations of trans Kansans, as well as legal aid and safe housing. By donating to organizations like these, you can directly support trans Americans and fight back against this national epidemic of transphobia. We must also remember that it’s not only the lives and livelihoods of trans people at stake — if we don’t fight back, who’s to say they won’t go after another innocent group next?
