Kansas
Kansas attorney general sues to prevent transgender people from changing driver’s licenses
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Republican attorney general of Kansas sued Friday to block transgender residents from changing their sex on their driver’s licenses and to rebuke the Democratic governor for defying his interpretation of a new law.
Attorney General Kris Kobach went to a state court in hopes of getting an order to stop Gov. Laura Kelly and agencies under her control to stop allowing the changes to transgender people’s licenses. Kobach contends a law that took effect Saturday prevents such changes and requires the state to reverse any previous changes in its records, including about 1,300 made over the past four years.
The new law defines a person’s sex as male or female, based on the “biological reproductive system” identified at birth, applying that definition to any state law or regulation. It also says that “important governmental objectives” of protecting people’s privacy, health and safety justify single-sex spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms. Kansas is among at least 10 states with a law against transgender people using facilities in line with their gender identities, though the new law includes no enforcement mechanism.
But Kelly’s office announced last week that the state health department, which handles birth certificates, and the motor vehicle division, which issues driver’s licenses, will continue allowing transgender people to change the markers for sex on those documents. Her office said lawyers in her administration had concluded that doing so doesn’t violate the new law. Kelly is a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and vetoed the measure, but the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode her.
In response to that announcement, Kobach said, “She is violating her oath of office to uphold Kansas law.”
The lawsuit filed Friday names as defendants two officials who oversee driver’s licenses. Part of the lawsuit reads: “The Governor cannot pick and choose which laws she will enforce and which laws she will ignore.”
His lawsuit seeks to force the governor to enforce the law as he sees it but did not request to stop changes to birth certificates. The rationale for restricting the lawsuit to driver’s licenses wasn’t immediately clear, nor was it clear how quickly the district court in Shawnee County, home to the state capital, Topeka, would deal with the case. Judges have the option of sending the lawsuit to a trial court to do fact-finding, which could delay a resolution for months.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks during a rally for teachers and education funding, April 25, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. The Democratic governor declared Thursday, June 29, that the state will keep allowing transgender residents to alter their driver’s licenses and birth certificates, despite a new law aimed at preventing it. Credit: AP/John Hanna
The new Kansas law was among a raft of measures rolling back transgender rights enacted this year in statehouses across the U.S. But only a few states do not allow transgender people to change their birth certificates. Federal judges last month upheld policies in Oklahoma and Tennessee, and a no-changes rule in Montana is expected to face a legal challenge.
Kelly won her first term as governor in 2018 by defeating Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state. He staged a political comeback last year by winning the attorney general’s race as she captured a second term, both of them by slim margins.
The governor’s statements about the new law are at odds with descriptions from LGBTQ+ rights advocates before the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted it over Kelly’s veto. The advocates predicted that it would prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s licenses and amounted to a legal “erasure” of their identities, something Kobach confirmed as the intent when he issued his legal opinion.
“For me to go into a bathroom and not have a marker that represents who I am, I was terrified. I was afraid I was going to get accosted or harassed,” said Ty Goeke, a 37-year-old transgender Topeka resident who changed both his birth certificate and driver’s license last month.
This image from the Kansas Department of Revenue shows a sample driver’s license issued by the state’s Division of Vehicles, first produced in June 2021. A new Kansas law will prevent transgender people from changing the listing for their sex on the license to match their gender identities. Credit: AP
Goeke participated in a transgender rights rally last week with his wife, Mallory, who carried a sign made from a toilet seat, calling for the new law to be “flushed.” Ty Goeke said he sobbed with joy in a state health department office when he changed his birth certificate.
“Now that I have the correct marker, I feel much better, feel more confident,” he said. “I feel at ease with myself.”
The legal wrangling is complicated by a federal lawsuit filed in 2018 against Kansas health department officials by four transgender residents over a previous no-changes policy on birth certificates imposed under a Republican governor. That policy also hindered changes in driver’s licenses.
Kelly settled the federal lawsuit months after taking office in January 2019, and a federal judge issued an order to enforce the settlement that requires the state to allow birth certificate changes. The order remains in effect.
Kobach has asked the federal judge to rescind his order but argues that the new state law supersedes it. Others disagree.
Kansas
Kansas man creates large portrait of Kamala Harris in field after Biden announces exit from race
A Kansas man is sending a political message using agriculture-inspired art in a tribute to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Stan Herd, creator and owner of Stan Herd Arts and a contributor with Earthworks, created a large mural in a field in Lawrence, Kansas, of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now running for president on the Democratic ticket.
“I’ve long been on the political progressive side. I’ve long believed that women should be in leadership, not just in the United States but around the world,” Herd said as he explained his reasoning behind the portrait.
Herd said this was not his first piece of art related to the vice president. He also did a portrait of her and one of Biden when they were elected four years ago.
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Stan Herd of Earthworks created a portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris in a field in Lawrence, Kan. (Stan Herd/Earthworks)
“I created a portrait of Kamala Harris back then as his VP, hoping that Biden would fulfill his promise to be a stepping stone to the new generation,” Herd said.
Herd said the portrait took 12 days of work and 25 yards of mulch and was created using the Earth’s natural resources.
“It’s just exciting to be involved and traveling around the country,” Herd said. “I am hoping that it reaches people and makes some difference.
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Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks during the Women’s Economic Participation in the Industries of the Future meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Week in San Francisco Nov. 16, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
“I started to do a Gretchen Whitmer piece and actually started to lay out the image, and then things happened that made me realize I needed to wait. So, two days ago, we put a question mark in there. And we will be working as quickly as possible when she makes that decision or the party makes that decision on who the upcoming VP will be. Then we will be out there on the field creating that portrait,” Herd said.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wis. (Jim Vondruska/Stringer)
Herd said he does understand retaliation for his work is always a possibility and said it would just be another part of his story if anything like that were to ever happen.
“It is time to take the temperature down in this political thing, and it’s not going to go down in the next four months, but I hope it does, obviously, when this comes to its conclusion,” Herd said.
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Herd, now 73 and a native of Kansas, has been doing artwork for 40 years, and it’s been featured in 13 states in the U.S. and across the world in China, Cuba, Australia and Brazil.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Football fans in Kansas City will hear a pair of locals again this season during NFL games on CBS.
University of Kansas alum Kevin Harlan and former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green are broadcast partners for another season, CBS Sports unveiled Wednesday in a preseason press release.
Harlan and Green will be paired with Melanie Collins, who will provide sideline reports during the broadcasts.
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The Kansas City pairing is unofficially CBS’s third team, behind the trio of Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson, and trio of Ian Eagle, Charles Davis and Evan Washburn.
During his career, Harlan spent time broadcasting games for the Kansas City Chiefs radio network as well as the University of Kansas and University of Missouri. Along with his NFL broadcasts, Harlan calls basketball games in the NBA and NCAA for Turner Sports.
CBS also announced broadcast assignments for the first three weeks of the 2024 NFL season.
The Nantz, Romo and Wolfson crew will be in Kansas City in Week 2 when CBS broadcasts the Chiefs matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Harlan and Green will broadcast the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins’ Week 1 game, the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings’ Week 2 matchup, and the Dolphins trip to Seattle to play the Seahawks in Week 3.
For more on CBS’s broadcast plans in 2024, click here.
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Kansas
Everyone has a role to play in alleviating our fellow Kansans' despair and daily needs • Kansas Reflector
Poverty. Crime. Anger. Despair. Confusion.
They’re everywhere. The pain is deep and far and wide these days in Kansas and beyond. When I am near downtown Topeka, I shop at a store where there are people who exhibit great needs. I often see homeless people with stolen grocery carts, using them as places to keep their belongings.
A local nonprofit called Let’s Help is opening a location nearby, and I can just see ahead to the people who will seek assistance there. I truly care, however, and my compassion gives me strength in a time when despair and lack threaten to overtake us all.
Last month, I was given a tour of the Lois Curtis campus on Indiana Street in southeast Topeka. They have renovated an old grade school to provide services to people in need, especially those who have a disability. They have a food bank section, a room with durable medical equipment along with other resource rooms. The people who work there are lovely.
That’s just how it is for folks. Poverty affects too many people, but it especially affects those who have an extra struggle, such as a physical or mental disability. It also affects people of color and those who struggle with addictions.
There are people who say that Jesus is the answer for the poverty issue — that churches are the answer, not the government. While my faith is vital to my life and very, very important, I think Jesus would ask us all to lend a helping hand. That includes local nonprofits, homeless shelters, and federal, state and local government.
It definitely takes all of us — everyone — working together to help eradicate poverty.
One of the issues I think a lot about is food insecurity. When we see someone in front of us in the grocery store checkout using a food benefit card, I would say that’s the time to offer a smile and a kind word, or even a prayer. We don’t know that person’s story.
I just completed another gift card drive for the housing specialist at a local mental health nonprofit, and my friends gave $300 in gift cards for vulnerable clients. The housing specialist emailed me and shared her joy that she and also the case managers experience when they drive their clients to the store to use the gift cards to purchase food and other necessities. This made me happy.
My grandpa was a minister for 60 years. I often wonder: What would grandpa do? My grandpa gave to people in need. He and my grandma lived in a huge home in Americus, Georgia, yet they weren’t snobs or prideful. They always helped people.
I want to make a difference like my grandparents did. I have volunteered at Doorstep, a Topeka nonprofit that gives food, clothes and rent and utility assistance. I have also helped provide food for a friend in need. I drop off sandwiches for lunch at her doorstep.
We can all work together to face the poverty we see. We can work together to address the needs creatively and bravely. We will need the courage of people like Barry Feaker, who has been helping folks experiencing homelessness for years. He and LaManda Broyles and their team at the Topeka Rescue Mission truly provide hope and health.
Sgt. Matt Rose at the Topeka Police Department and the officers there truly care about homelessness. Rose has been given a huge job to help deal with complex needs in individuals and he and the officers on his team really reach out to help people in crisis. I have the honor of speaking each year to law enforcement in the Crisis Intervention Team training. It’s very important.
Yes, it’s time to gather our courage and our strength and to work together to address these huge issues in our communities and our state. There isn’t just one easy answer, and we need to congratulate ourselves when we find even part of an answer and when we help even just one individual in need.
Let’s run into the future with hope and heart and embrace the needs with strength.
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