Kansas will no longer change transgender people’s birth certificates to reflect their gender identities, the state health department said Friday, citing a new law that prevents the state from legally recognizing those identities.
The decision from the state Department of Health and Environment makes Kansas one of a handful of states that won’t change transgender people’s birth certificates. It already was among the few states that don’t change the gender marker on transgender people’s driver’s licenses.
Those decisions reverse policies that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration set when she took office in 2019. They came in response to court filings by conservative Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach to enforce the new state law. Enacted by the GOP-controlled Legislature over Kelly’s veto, it took effect July 1 and defines male and female based only on the sex assigned to a person at birth.
In Afghanistan when someone wanted to get a visa to travel to the US or Europe they would be asked for their birth certificate as proof of citizenship. The problem is, their wasn’t a system in the country that regulated or even made birth certificates. But the Americans said it was required. So, what do you do? You make one. Now guys are making them everywhere, selling them to whoever wants one. Bam, American democracy established.