SB 244 Goes into Effect: Anti-trans Cruelty Unleashed

Trans people in Kansas began to receive letters yesterday stating that, due to the passage of SB 244, their drivers licenses are void beginning today, and that if they drive on them they risk arrest for a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $1000 fine or six months in jail. Trans Kansans will have to get to the DMV and pay for their own new identification, which will misgender them. No warning, no grace period -- just that if you DWT (drive while trans) with a gender marker which matches your gender identity, you risk arrest.

We tried to warn the Kansas legislature that this bill was cruel and would have unintended consequences, but we're not sure these consequences are in fact unintended, as it seemed clear that the entire goal of the supermajority that overrode the governor's veto was to make trans people as miserable as possible.

This bill was passed with unprecedented legislative trickery, without a proper hearing and in a rush, with the entire goal being a) to buttress the political campaigns of legislative leadership, particularly Senate President Ty Masterson, b) to implement their Christian Nationalist political position that LGBTQ+ Kansans should not exist or be accepted, and c) to further use a small and marginalized population as a political punching bag – which they have been doing for the last five years. SB 244 is the ultimate combination of religious fanaticism and the unchecked power of the legislative supermajority, and it is putting real people in real danger.

This is also the bill that forces transgender people to use the public bathroom of their “sex assigned at birth” rather than their accurate gender identity, which is also expensive and cruel -- and we haven't even gotten to the full implementation of that part yet.

We don’t often use the word sin, either in our political work or in our religious lives. We understand people sometimes don’t live up to their best intentions – that’s part of being human -- and God is full of compassion. But when a legislative supermajority uses its unchecked power to immiserate a small and marginalized population, there is only one word for it: SB 244 is a sin.

To our trans siblings we say: You are beloved of God, you always have a place with us, and we will do what we can to protect and support you, as we have always tried to.

To KIFA supporters we say: Please join us at KIFA Advocacy Day on Tuesday, March 10, to bring a clear and strong moral voice to our legislators to say: this is cruelty by the strong against the weak, and it will not stand.

And to the far-right legislators who implemented this base and depraved policy we say, as we did on the day the governor’s veto was overridden: Shame on you. You have hurt vulnerable Kansans (again), embarrassed the state nationally (again), and shown yourselves to be bigoted and cruel (again). This vote will remain a stain on your records, and on your souls, forever.