Her License Was Invalidated For Being Trans
“I wish I could convey to them that the people they’re hurting are real human beings,” says Juniper, 24, of Wichita Kansas.
Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, from his Instagram
by Evan Urquhart
In Kansas today, trans Americans are waking up to a nightmare: The licenses they depend on to drive to work or school, to buy groceries, or to visit family and friends, have been invalidated overnight, potentially subjecting them to criminal charges if they’re caught driving with an expired license, simply because they are trans. This state of affairs, which would seem to violate constitutional requirements for due process, was forced through the Kansas legislature in a special session in late January, with no grace period or allowances made for trans Kansans who wish only to follow the law.
Although at least two outlets have reported that some Kansans who changed the gender markers on their licenses were notified that their licenses were about to be invalidated by mail, we spoke with one who says that, if it were not for social media, she would not have known her license became invalid mere hours ago. We spoke with Juniper of Wichita, Kansas via zoom, a trans woman who says she changed her gender marker in 2020. For safety reasons, Assigned agreed to use only her first name. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
Assigned Media: To start out, did you bring your ID, just so I can visually verify you have a Kansas license with a female gender marker?
Juniper: Yes.
AM: Okay, looks like Kansas, looks like your name… hold on, let me… yes, yes, there it is, looks like your gender is F.
AM: So, why don’t you tell me how you heard about the fact that your license, I believe is going to be invalidated as of now… as of tomorrow morning?
J: I believe it was invalidated four hours ago.
I follow the Kansas Reflector, who have done some reporting on this, though it’s not a publication all that many people view. None of my co-workers were aware of the law, including one other trans person that I work with.
AM: I know we’ve heard that some trans people have received letters letting them know that their licenses are invalid, but you didn’t get a letter, did you? So, if you hadn’t been following the news, there’s no way that you’d have known that you were driving on an invalid license, is that right?
J: Actually, I didn’t know the date off the top of my head, so if people hadn’t been posting about it on Bluesky today it wouldn’t have passed my mind. I wasn’t aware that there wasn’t any kind of grace period – I just accepted that naturally there would be a grace period.
I was at work and I was seeing people posting about it and I came home expecting to have [a letter] and I didn’t have anything at all. I haven’t received any notice and I don’t think any of my previous addresses are receiving mail so I don’t think I got sent one.
AM: So, in addition to invalidating people’s licenses, it seems like the extent to which trans people are being notified is, probably, pretty spotty?
J: That’s the impression I’m getting. I have coworkers, again, who were learning about it for the first time when I was talking about it last night. So it wasn’t well communicated. It’s not being notified in the proper way.
AM: Do you rely on driving in your daily life? Can you talk a little bit about that?
J: Yeah. I live in Wichita, which is one of the largest cities in Kansas. Our city is very heavily built around cars – there’s kind of a joke that the bus will take at least four times as long as any other method. When I was taking the bus it took me an hour and a half to get to work whereas driving takes about fifteen minutes, because you have to do multiple transfers, you have to go in the opposite direction to get to the downtown hub to get to the one that goes to the place you need to go.
I close at my café where I work, and once I get off there are no buses running. If I didn’t live with someone who’s able to get me to the DMV tomorrow my only choice would be to Uber around or try to spend my entire day, call into work, take the bus, and spend the entire day at the DMV, however long the wait will be, to get my license. I am anticipating that the DMV wait is going to be very bad because everybody is learning about this the day before it happens.
AM: And, can you just tell me, how long have you had a license with a female gender marker?
J: I think I said seven years, but it’s probably closer to 6. I am 24 now and I changed it when I was 18. This one was issued in 2023 but that was because of a broken license – physically broken – so I had to get it replaced. I think I first changed it in, would have been, 2020?
AM: And have you had any problems with that?
J: Not even once. I’ve been pulled over for forgetting to put a light on and the interaction went very smoothly, I didn’t have any problems with the cop.
In the hearings for the bill, two justifications that were made were one, if someone was unconscious and showed up to a hospital unconscious supposedly there are some medical problems where if they don’t have the correct biological gender – I don’t know what that problem was even supposed to be. And then there was a police officer [Bob Stuart of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation] who spoke who made a very vague statement that they needed the licenses to match biological sex because that would be the difference between somebody that they’re going to tell “OK, have a wonderful day,” and somebody that they’re going to detain for further questions.
AM: I think the last question is just, what would you like to say to these Kansas legislators who, basically, made you a criminal overnight?
J: It’s hard to say what I would say to the Kansas legislators because I know guys like [Kansas Senate President] Ty Masterson, the people who are serving as Republican legislators in our congress right now. I know there’s nothing I could say that would change their minds. I’ve tried contacting my representatives, the state ones and the national ones, all of them have boilerplate responses. None of them really care.
I wish I could convey to them that the people they’re hurting are real human beings. Every time I have to share my ID now, that is me sharing an extremely personal piece of medical information to anyone who I’m going to apply to an apartment for, any job I’m going to apply.
Mind you, I understand that it’s legal now to discriminate against trans people. And so, every job I apply to is going to have that information. I just wish that there would be any sort of interest in following established law and allowing for the legal precedent that had existed for 30 years in this state to be respected when it hasn’t caused a single issue.
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.