News & Commentary

Led by D.C. Hiegert, a legal fellow at ACLU Kansas, and Donnavan Dillon, senior organizer with Loud Light, the evening’s discussion addressed developments in changing gender markers and gender-affirming health care for minors, as well as resources for the local community.

The state is asking a Douglas County judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a new state law banning surgery and the use of puberty blockers for treating transgender children in Kansas.

“We again remind Mr. Kobach that the Constitution specifically protects against government actors and their attacks on Americans — and that includes children in Kansas who happen to be transgender,” the organization wrote in a statement Thursday.

The ACLU of Kansas calls Kobach’s lawsuit a ‘weaponization’ of his office. "We again remind Mr. Kobach that the Constitution specifically protects against government actors and their attacks on Americans – and that includes children in Kansas who happen to be transgender.

"Our clients and every Kansan should have the freedom to make their own private medical decisions and consult with their doctors without the intrusion of Kansas politicians," said D.C. Hiegert, an ACLU attorney, when the lawsuit was filed.

Last month, a coalition of LGBTQ advocacy groups, including the ACLU, and families filed a lawsuit, hoping to stop the Kansas law from being enforced.

The Kansas ACLU represented five transgender Kansans in the case. In a statement, the organization said, "The Kansas Court of Appeals' decision is clear in upholding the rights of transgender Kansans to have their gender markers changed on their driver's licenses.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said in a statement that the appeals court's decision is clear in upholding transgender Kansans' rights, but that decision isn't in effect until a mandate is issued.

The ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU and Stinson LLP intervened in the case on behalf of five transgender Kansans who claim to have been harmed by Kobach’s effort to ban and reverse changes to the gender markers on their driver’s licenses.