Kansas
Driver's license gender needs to match sex assigned at birth, Kansas AG Kris Kobach argues in court – Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — 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.
Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach asked Shawnee County District Judge Theresa Watson to grant a temporary injunction blocking Kansas residents from changing the gender listed on their drivers’ licenses while courts decide the implications of an anti-transgender law passed last year.
“This case is really about the question of whether an agency follows the clear command of Kansas law or does not,” Kobach said in an interview after Thursday’s hearing. “… And they’re using this case as an opportunity to try to invent these new rights. That’s what’s going on in legal speak.”
Watson heard arguments Wednesday and Thursday regarding the implementation of Senate Bill 180, which took effect in July. The legislation conflates sex, which has to do with biological characteristics, with gender, which is a personal and social identity. Under the law, women are defined by their reproductive ability, and state agencies that collect vital statistics are directed to identify individuals “as either male or female at birth.”
The hearings, which coincided with the opening of the legislative session, mark the latest turn in an ongoing legal battle over transgender rights.
During the hearings, Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, and Kansas Department of Revenue general counsel Ted Smith emphasized the idea of driver’s licenses as a form of self expression, rather than a vital statistic.
“In a big sense, it’s an expression of someone’s identity,” Smith said in court.
They made an appeal to perspective and empathy, focusing on the danger of outing transgender residents by having a gender marker that does not match their identity, as well as the negative mental health consequences suffered by removing this source of affirmation.
As the hearing wrapped up, Watson said her opinion could be delayed because of factors such as ongoing court construction — the sounds of which could be heard periodically as people testified — but she assured the parties she “would be working quite a bit on this in the future.”
The legal fight
The GOP-dominated Legislature adopted SB 180 last year by overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.
The model legislation comes from Independent Women’s Voices, a far-right group that has a long history of opposing women’s rights, including the Equal Rights Amendment and equal pay. The law’s sex-based definition of women, and classification of those who don’t qualify as men or women as disabled, is considered offensive and not based on science.
Kobach, in his capacity as the top legal officer in the state, filed a lawsuit against the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles in early July, seeking to ban transgender people from changing gender markers on their driver’s licenses.
In response, the district court issued a temporary restraining order blocking Kelly’s administration from making gender marker changes on identity cards and driver’s licenses.
The court granted the ACLU of Kansas permission to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of five transgender Kansans who would be harmed by the gender marker ban.
For now, the extended restraining order does not invalidate current driver’s licenses. However, new, replaced or renewed credentials will be reverted to sex assigned at birth.
When asked about gender markers Thursday, the governor said: “I’m going to let the courts sort that out.”
Impact of the law
Rooks County physician Beth Oller, who has treated an estimated 100 transgender patients, spoke to the judge about the “great harm” suffered by those who are blocked from gender affirmation, such as increased anxiety, depression and social isolation.
A physician’s letter is required to change license markers in the state. Oller has written an estimated 40 letters recommending gender marker changes and described the “profound sense of relief” she witnessed when they had the markers changed.
Transgender residents also took the stand Thursday to testify on their personal experiences, though portions of the meeting were closed to the public to protect several of the intervenors’ anonymity. One of the interveners in the case, a transgender woman living in Lawrence, teared up while speaking of incidents before she got her license marker changed.
She mentioned a cashier at a gas station who told her to leave after he looked at her driver’s license and saw the “M,” as well as the “abject hate” in one man’s eyes when she was showing her card to make a purchase.
She then described the feeling of safety she received from having her marker changed. If the ban on gender markers is permanent, she said, staying in the state would no longer be a viable option.
“I would feel like I’m being kicked out of the state over something I have no control over,” she said.
Stormont Vail Healthcare is in a legal battle with the state government, alleging the Medicaid program was wrong to refuse payment for the hospitalization of a pregnant patient with complications.
At issue is a disagreement between the Topeka hospital and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment over whether inpatient health care services were medically necessary for the Medicaid patient’s last two weeks of pregnancy.
The Kansas Court of Appeals did not resolve that dispute, but it did side with Stormont Vail in a May 8 decision. The unanimous three-judge panel reversed a decision by Shawnee County District Court Judge Thomas Luedke and vacated an order from KDHE’s State Appeals Committee. The matter now goes back to the appeals committee for reconsideration.
The appellate panel was comprised of Judges Jacy Hurst, Thomas Malone and Stephen Hill, which heard oral arguments on Aug. 5. Hurst wrote the court’s opinion.
The lawsuit stems from a 2018 case of a pregnant patient, who is not named in appellate court documents. She was 28 years old at the time and had an intellectual disability among other complications, including rapid weight loss caused by hyperemesis gravidarum.
The woman was originally admitted at Newman Regional Health in Emporia before she was transferred to Stormont Vail. Part of the hospitalization during her third trimester was covered.
But the final two weeks were not because Sunflower Health Plan, one of the managed care organizations in the state’s privatized Medicaid program known as KanCare, refused to reimburse for the patient’s continued hospitalization through the day the child was born via cesarean section.
“We are here because the Kansas Medicaid program has wrongfully refused to pay for some of an inpatient hospitalization while a Medicaid beneficiary was at Stormont Vail,” said Amanda Wilwert, an attorney for the hospital, during oral arguments. “Stormont believes the inpatient care was medically necessary as defined by the Kansas Medicaid regulations.”
Court records and oral arguments show the state expected Stormont Vail to look into having a home health agency care for the patient in Emporia instead of continued hospitalization — even though home health generally does not take care of pregnant patients and her doctors believed the expectant mother was not stable enough to discharge.
“The way it’s supposed to work,” said Darren Sharp, an attorney representing KDHE, “is the managed care organization, in this case Sunflower Health, on behalf of KDHE reviews the medical records, asks about the appropriate level of care and whether there’s any other interventions that would be more cost effective or appropriate depending on the level of or depending on the patient’s records and the patient’s status.”
Sharp argued medical records showed the patients was getting better because of total parenteral nutrition, or TPN.
“This is when a tube, a PICC, is inserted and your minerals and your electrolytes and all of your nutrition is then intravenously provided,” Sharp said.
He said the treatment “was eliminating her vomiting, her diarrhea, she had no fever, her glucose levels were stabilized.”
In their ruling, the judges indicated the KDHE appeals committee primarily cared about the cost saving of using home health versus hospitalization while disregarding the treating physician for insufficient reasons and ignoring evidence on potential benefits or harms to the patient.
But the judges declined to resolve the dispute. Rather, unless the decision is appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, the matter goes back to the KDHE administrative process.
There, the agency’s appeals committee must reconsider the case consistent with the Court of Appeal’s ruling. The published decision sets new precedent interpreting state laws and regulations on the Medicaid program.
“While this court provides no opinion on whether the disputed inpatient healthcare services met the definition of medical necessity,” Hurst wrote, “the record shows that some of the (appeals committee’s) factual findings were not supported by the record as a whole and that the (appeals committee) inaccurately applied the law when it failed to consider (the patient’s) individual characteristics and assess the harms and benefits of the healthcare intervention.
“In making a medical necessity determination, the reviewing agency must make an individualized determination based on the record as a whole.”
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
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All Kansas Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $599. For prizes over $599, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at select Kansas Lottery offices.
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Kansas
Kansas City, Kansas, becomes sister city to Concepción, Argentina, ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026
KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland, including Liberty. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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Kansas City, Kansas, is now a sister city to Concepción, in the Tucumán province of Argentina.
The connection that carries deep personal meaning for members of the Kansas City area’s Argentinian community, with less than six weeks until Lionel Messi and their national team play at Kansas City Stadium (GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium).
Kansas City, Kansas, becomes sister city to Concepción, Argentina, ahead of World Cup
The official Sister Cities Agreement was signed Wednesday at Sporting Park, in a ceremony that also served as the kickoff of a broader cultural and economic initiative connecting Argentina and Kansas.
Federico Carmona has lived in the United States for more than two decades. He spent Wednesday afternoon cheering and smiling.
“This is my dream,” Carmona said.
For Carmona, the moment was personal — a merging of the two places he calls home.
KSHB/ Brian Luton
“This is a blessing,” Carmona said.
He continued, “Argentina is my heart. I was born in Argentina. I have so much passion for soccer. I used to play, my kids play. We never thought that Argentina was going to be in Kansas City. So that was a big, big surprise for us.”
Claudia Luna West, chair of the Sister Cities Association and a native of Concepción, Tucumán, was one of the driving forces behind the partnership.
“It means the world to me,” Luna West said.
KSHB/ Brian Luton
She described the pairing of the two cities as a natural collaboration — like the ingredients of a perfect recipe coming together.
“Everything collaborates to be this great thing,” Luna West said.
That recipe metaphor extended to food. The event featured the announcement of a partnership between Kansas BBQ Empanadas and Jack Stack BBQ — a culinary symbol of the two cultures meeting.
“Now, empanadas aren’t going to be just an ethnic food. They’re going to be a landmark of Kansas,” Luna West said.
Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK, Christal Watson, said the designation reflects the city’s diversity and its ability to connect with the world.
KSHB
“I think it’s important that we set a global stage on how diverse we are and how beautifully, wonderfully made we are with all the different cultures,” Watson said.
Watson said shared experiences — including food — are what bring communities together.
KSHB
“Food is a common link. Those are the things that get us engaged… those are the things that help us grow and be a better community overall,” Watson said. “We already have a flavor going on.”
Jake Reid, president and CEO of Sporting Kansas City, said the timing of the sister city announcement — with the FIFA World Cup 2026 approaching — felt right.
KSHB/ Brian Luton
“We’ve been planning this for so long. I think to have it on the doorstep now and be probably a month out is becoming very real and exciting,” Reid said. “They’re meant to be from… kind of everything we’ve got going on right now, for sure.”
For Carmona, the day was a long time coming.
“We can’t wait for all this to happen,” Carmona said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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