TOPEKA — Trans people born in Kansas could find it impossible to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity if a measure filed Friday night by the state’s conservative Republican attorney general is successful.
In her federal court petition, Kris Kobach asks the judge to strike down a requirement that makes Kansas allow transgender people to change their birth certificates.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree imposed that requirement in 2019 to resolve a lawsuit brought by four trans Kansas residents against three state health officials over a policy critics say prevented trans people from transitioning even after transitioning. could legally change their name and obtain new driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.
It wasn’t clear if Kobach’s move would go ahead.given the 2020 US Supreme Court decision that stated that federal law that prevents gender discrimination in the workplace also prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Also in 2022, federal judges in Idaho and Ohio struck down anti-transgender laws that change their birth certificates. But this month, federal judges in Tennessee and Oklahoma threw out appeals against two of the few state policies against those changes that are still in effect.
Kobach’s initiative appears to be in line with a new Kansas law that goes into effect July 1 that reduces the rights of the trans community. The legislation was approved by the state House, with a Republican majority, against the veto of the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly. A memo filed online along with Kobach’s petition shortly before midnight cited that law as a reason to revise the 2019 agreement.
The report noted that Crabtree’s order makes it “impossible” to enforce the new state law and that since the House “has spoken,” the health department, which handles birth certificates, is now “forced to enforce the law as it is written.”
Kobach had already called a press conference on Monday to discuss the application of the new law.
Crabtree’s 2019 order blocked a policy imposed by the government of former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback that was one of the toughest in the country against changes to birth certificates. Kelly is a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, and her executive settled the lawsuit less than six months after taking office.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and the LGBTQ+ rights legal group Lambda Legal, which represent the four residents in the state, criticized Kobach’s initiative. According to Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, of Lamda Legal, it is “unnecessary and cruel.”
For his part, ACLU Kansas Executive Director Micah Kubic added in a statement that “Mr. Kobach should reconsider the wisdom, and sheer indecency, of this attempt to weaponize the authority of his office to attack Kansas trans people who are just trying to live their lives.”
The new Kansas law is designed to prevent transgender people from using bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identity. At least nine other states have such laws, most focused on public schools.
LGBTQ+ rights activists say that changing a person’s birth certificate, driver’s license and other documents to reflect a person’s gender identity is critical to affirming their identity and is a process that often improves their mental health.
FUENTE: With information from AP
