On Feb. 26, 2026, Senate Bill 244 took immediate effect and made changes to how transgender people live their lives in Kansas. This bill invalidates any Kansas Government ID with a gender marker that does not match a birth certificate. The bill continues, stating that transgender people are no longer able to use the restroom of their preferred gender in some buildings.  

This bill states that as of Feb. 26, all government IDs that list a preferred sex rather than an assigned sex are now invalid. This does not just affect driver’s licenses; it also affects those who had a sex change on their birth certificate. Those individuals have now been issued a new birth certificate. The state has decided it will not be covering the fees related to getting a new license or birth certificate. For those that did not get their gender marker changed back, and are found to be using a now invalid ID, they can be charged with a class B misdemeanor. This is the same classification for being caught with a fake ID in Kansas. In Kansas if you are caught with a fake ID, you can be fined up to $2,500 as well as have 12 months in prison. 

Prior to this bill going into effect, around 1,700 Kansas residents with IDs that had invalid gender markers were informed of the changes being made, giving individuals enough time to start the process of getting a valid license.

SB 244 also made rulings that transgender people must go to the restroom of their assigned sex at birth in government buildings’ multi-occupancy restrooms. However, this rule does not apply to single occupancy restrooms or privately owned property. 

While you can be charged for having an invalid drivers license, the consequences for going into the preferred gendered multi-occupancy restrooms in government buildings has both civil and criminal liabilities. While this bill allows transgender people to use single occupancy restrooms matching their preferred gender, not every building has single occupancy restrooms available to the public. This bill also included that no more multi occupancy gender neutral restrooms can be created in government buildings in Kansas.

This bill takes away a lot of the protection and comfort that transgender individuals had in Kansas. Similar bills have been passed in other states like Texas and Tennessee. This bill also does not include name changes as a factor that invalidates ID, though documentation of name changes is very important to keep for the future. 

For more information, visit the ACLU Kansas