What is the difference between a 15-year-old and a transgender adult? The 15-year-old can legally drive in Kansas.
It seems like a joke, but it is a cruel reality. As of February 26, Kansas invalidated the driver's licenses of approximately 1,700 trans Kansans whose licenses reflected their gender rather than the sex assigned at birth. Unlike states that never allowed changes to gender markers, Kansas' move is a striking change from its previous permissive policy. This law, one of hundreds of anti-trans laws across the country, senselessly targets the small minority of people who happen to be trans.
This wave of legislation follows previously enacted “bathroom bills” that banned trans people from accessing public bathrooms that match their gender identity, a fight that now awaits a court resolution. In 2026, lawmakers have raised the stakes to invalidate trans people's IDs. These laws make anyone who is even slightly non-conforming with their gender an object of suspicion, a potential criminal.
Kansas did not establish a grace period for the implementation of this law, so a trans person cannot even drive to the DMV to change their license without committing a crime. Because getting around Kansas likely requires a car, this law not only criminalizes trans people but also cuts off their mobility. How can they go to work? How can they take their children to school? How can they buy food?
New laws require resources to draft, edit, finalize, and implement them. But in this case, the problem was not so much the execution but the objective. Taking 1,700 trans drivers off the roads does not benefit the people of Kansas in any way. It just undermines the lives of these people and their families. As Utah Governor Spencer Cox noted in his veto of a ban on trans people in sports, the number of trans people (in that case, student athletes) is so small that the legislative push to marginalize them seems like much ado about nothing. A waste of time.
Equally important is the need for compassion. As Cox further stated: “I must admit that I am not an expert on transgenderism. I have a hard time understanding much of it and the science is contradictory. However, when in doubt, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion.” Still, the Utah Legislature overrode the veto.
The ID law in Kansas also undermines law enforcement by unnecessarily complicating gender markers. Trans people primarily present themselves as the gender they transition to. Since the law was passed, when a police officer in Kansas pulls over someone with a broken taillight, he or she may encounter a driver who looks like a woman with an “M” on her license. This law creates problems without solving any. Law enforcement officers' jobs will become more difficult when they encounter “M” or “F” drivers who look the opposite of what is on their license. In fact, this discrepancy was the main reason why even conservative states like Kansas allowed trans people to update their birth certificates and driver's licenses.
Defenders of these police mechanisms (licenses, bathrooms or sports) argue that they “protect women,” but they simply complicate the lives of people of all sexes. It's not about protecting women: cruelty is the point. Hundreds of recent statutes, executive actions, and regulations seem to play a game of one-upmanship in which states try to find ways to be even crueler. Take, for example, how the Federal Bureau of Prisons moves trans women to men-only prisons, where they will surely face a torturous existence. But it's not just about important decisions like prisoner accommodation; These laws even extend to banning drag shows.
Of all these laws, the Kansas law takes disenfranchisement to a new level: its effect is retroactive. As of February 26, trans people in Kansas lost the validity of their driver's licenses. In short, the law seeks to ban trans people from public life, starting a few weeks ago.
Instead of asking whether trans Kansans should be allowed to drive, lawmakers should focus on issues that affect the three million Kansans. Every anti-trans “women's rights” law requires resources. Instead, lawmakers could fix problems that affect everyone, such as improving government affordability or efficiency, or even just filling in potholes. One might wonder why the Kansas legislature decided to focus on hurting 1,700 people instead of helping 3 million.
The Kansas law, like many targeting trans people in other states, makes life more difficult for targeted residents, but also for government workers who interact with them. It is a model of what government should not do: excessive cruelty and complexity, without any public purpose. Kansas public officials should avoid the distractions of petty biases and focus on representing all of their citizens.
Darren Rosenblum, a law professor, is the author, most recently, of “Queers, Closets, and Corporate Governance.”
