News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas announced Thursday that it was appealing a judge’s order blocking Kansas’ Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s administration from allowing transgender people to change the sex listed on their license.

Training session in Lawrence to educate about LGBTQ+ storytelling – The Lawrence Times“Free speech and expression, especially political protest, are fundamental to our democracy, and police cannot have the power to selectively arrest anyone for speech they disagree with or are angered by. We are glad to see the Court agreed,” Legal Director Sharon Brett said in an email statement.

Senate Bill 233 bans health care professionals from using surgery or puberty blockers to treat transgender children. Despite Republican lawmakers’ claims that puberty blockers and hormone therapy are unsafe, the same therapy will be allowed for cisgender children.

A Kansas judge ruled Monday that the state isn't violating transgender residents' rights under the state constitution by refusing to change their driver's licenses to reflect their gender identities.

Transgender Kansans will continue to be denied gender marker changes to their drivers licenses after a judge in Topeka sided with Attorney General Kris Kobach as Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson issued a ruling on Monday granting Kobach's request for a temporary injunction.

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.