News & Commentary

D.C. Hiegert, an attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, said the proposals were among the largest and most harmful anti-trans bills that had ever been introduced in Kansas.

Kobach is now urging school districts to tell parents if students are trans or nonbinary.

The ACLU of Kansas has released a response regarding the Kansas Attorney General’s letter to six Kansas Public School districts allegedly not disclosing a student’s pronouns shared in school to the student’s parents.

“What they’re trying to do is excise transgender people from the protections of state code,” said Sharon Brett, an attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, referring to lawmakers in her state who passed a law last year that narrowly defines sex.

Civil rights advocates argued in court this week that drivers’ licenses should not lead to “forced outing,” leaving a district judge to decide how a divisive law will impact the day-to-day lives of transgender Kansans.

At the Shawnee County District Court hearing, Kobach, the Kansas Department of Revenue, and the ACLU of Kansas argued over whether KDOR should be blocked from allowing gender marker changes while the lawsuit against SB 180 continues.

D.C. Heigert, an attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, said a ban on gender-affirming care would prove especially damaging as the trans community in Kansas is already suffering from the effects of restrictions passed last year.

Earlier this past summer, in the ACLU of Kansas’ report about the historical and social significance of the Quindaro settlement, we talked about the aspirational Kansas we fear too many residents here have forgotten.

Sharon Brett, legal director of ACLU of Kansas, argued in a 60-page document submitted to the Shawnee County District Court that Attorney General Kris Kobach’s mistaken interpretation of how a new state law applied to driver’s licenses could result in violation of rights.