Two transgender men sue Kansas government over law voiding driver's licenses

Two transgender men sued Kansas on Friday, challenging a newly enacted law that abruptly invalidated their driver’s licenses and empowers private lawsuits against people accused of using the “wrong” restrooms in government buildings.

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The lawsuit, filed in Douglas County District Court under the pseudonyms Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, argues that Senate Bill 244, enacted over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto and effective Thursday, violates core rights guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution, including due process, equality under the law, personal autonomy, privacy, and freedom of expression.

“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” Monica Bennett, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said in a statement. She urged the court to strike down the law’s “harmful and discriminatory” provisions.

Related: Kansas governor passes law requiring ID to view acts of 'homosexuality' online, vetoes anti-LGBTQ+ bill

SB 244 provides that “any driver’s license issued prior to July 1, 2026” that lists a gender marker inconsistent with Kansas’s statutory definition of sex, meaning sex assigned at birth, “shall be invalid.” The state’s Division of Vehicles was ordered to notify affected individuals this week that their credentials would be invalid on Thursday. They would need to reissue new credentials marked with the sex the person was assigned at birth.

The law also prohibits transgender Kansans and people born in Kansas from updating the gender marker on driver’s licenses and birth certificates in the future, according to the ACLU press release.

The lawsuit says the abrupt invalidation amounts to a constitutionally impermissible deprivation of property — a valid license — without meaningful notice or opportunity to be heard, violating due process. For Doe and Moe, the consequences are practical and immediate. Doe, an administrative associate at the University of Kansas, must operate university vehicles as part of his job; without a valid license, he risks losing employment. Moe, a Ph.D. student who also works late shifts at a local bar, relies on his license to return home safely and to prove his identity for work, voting, travel, and housing, the complaint states.

Related: Kansas lawmakers override governor's veto of anti-trans 'bathroom bounty' bill

Senior staff attorney Harper Seldin, of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, called the law “a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia.” She said the invalidation of state-issued IDs “threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police.”

“This is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether,” Seldin added.

SB 244’s restroom provisions are equally stark. The law requires public buildings to designate multi-occupancy spaces, including restrooms, for use by only one sex, defined as the sex assigned at birth, and mandates that administrators “ensure an individual does not enter” a space designated for the opposite sex.

Critically, it also establishes a private right of action, allowing any person who suspects another of violating the restroom rule to sue for up to $1,000 in damages. According to the complaint, that would turn ordinary Kansans into de facto law enforcers.

“SB 244 presents a state-sanctioned attack on transgender people aimed at silencing, dehumanizing, and alienating Kansans whose gender identity does not conform to the state legislature’s preferences,” said Heather St. Clair, a Ballard Spahr litigator working on the case. “Ballard Spahr is committed to standing with the ACLU and the plaintiffs in fighting on behalf of transgender Kansans for a remedy against the injustices presented by SB 244, and is dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights jeopardized by this new law.”

Related: Kansas immediately revokes transgender residents’ driver’s licenses

SB 244 comes after years of conservative legislative efforts in Kansas to redefine legal recognition of gender. In 2023, lawmakers passed a law defining “sex” as biological sex at birth; Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach subsequently sought to compel the Department of Revenue to require driver’s licenses to reflect that definition. A 2025 Kansas Court of Appeals decision rejected that claim, and the Kansas Supreme Court declined to review.

Lawmakers responded by combining ID and restroom restrictions into a single omnibus bill that bypassed extended committee hearings and consolidated disparate measures, without the opportunity for broader public debate.

Kelly vetoed the bill, warning that it was poorly drafted, but the Legislature overrode her veto on February 18, making the law effective just days later.