This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
Hey, you guys know about Kansas, right? The Sunflower State? America’s Heartland? Spelled a lot like Arkansas, America explain? Home to one of the bloodiest early “debates” about the ethics of chattel slavery? Sure, you know all about Kansas. We at Assigned know all about Kansas, too!
On February 2, we wrote about a high stakes bathroom bill in Kansas that threatened to retroactively invalidate the amended licenses of every transgender Kansan. Before the month was out, the bill passed, went into effect immediately, and threatened to levy punishments upon trans Kansans as severe as six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if they failed to update their license.
Known business magnate, Trans America’s 50 Under 50 listee ten years running, and LGBTQ+ Journalist of the Year, Evan Urquhart, interviewed a trans Kansan in the early hours of the morning after SB244 went into effect and discovered that she was given absolutely no notice that her license was invalidated. Had she failed to see internet coverage of the bill’s passage, she might have wound up in jail. Some trans Kansans did receive notice, but often less than 24 hours in advance, necessitating an illegal trip to the DMV… where hapless employees were less than helpful.
And even when they comply, trans Kansans are finding themselves at odds with the state. On May 5, after paying to have her license reissued, Kansan Kris Ripper was pulled over by a police officer because of a headlights violation. When he seemed confused, Ripper explained to the officer that she’s a trans woman carrying a license with a state-enforced “M” on it. She says he seemed satisfied by this explanation, and let her go with a verbal warning.
Then, near the end of June, Ripper received a letter that stated she had failed to appear in court over a charge of operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, a class B misdemeanor in Kansas. She did everything she was supposed to, complying with a discriminatory law that went into effect immediately and with hardly any forewarning for most trans Kansans, and the state tried to punish her for following the rules!
Fortunately, Ripper was able to clear up the issue with her county DA, presenting paperwork about her license amendment as evidence that in fact she had been in possession of a valid driver’s license when she was pulled over. Speaking to KWCH, Ripper recommended that every trans Kansan keep a record of their license change so that they can present the paperwork as evidence in the event that they face similar charges.
While she is surely glad that the situation was resolved, Ripper expressed uncertainty about the future, wondering if she might need to carry her birth certificate around to avoid more bogus charges. It’s an absolutely despicable situation that no person should have to endure, least of all a group of Americans who are already under attack daily from the federal government. People like Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach defend the law by insisting that identification must be accurate in case of interactions with law enforcement, but that certainly didn’t help Ripper.
Other defenders of the law suggest that maybe somebody, somewhere could have the gender marker on their license changed to avoid debts or the law, neither of which are realistic concerns. The truth is that this Kansas law, and laws like it in other states, are drafted and passed specifically to punish trans people for existing and force us to conform to ignorant bigots’ beliefs about sex, gender and medicine.
The ACLU of Kansas is fighting this law on behalf of two trans Kansans who have sued the state, but the hearing to discuss preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law won’t happen until September, and nobody can say how that will shake out. Even if the law is overturned, trans people in Kansas have had their lives completely upended by its rushed and sloppy application, and I sincerely doubt the state will ever make those people whole again.
