An anti-trans Kansas law doesn't prevent birth certificate changes, the governor argues

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democratic governor in Kansas is defending changes in the sex listings on transgender people's birth certificates in a federal court filing arguing that continuing the changes doesn't violate a new state law rolling back transgender rights.

An attorney for Gov. Laura Kelly's office also argued in the filing this week that the new Kansas law is discriminatory and “represents a willful failure of the Kansas Legislature" to protect people's rights. It took effect July 1 and defines male and female based on a person's sex assigned at birth for any other state law or regulation, barring legal recognition of transgender people's gender identities.

The state's Republican attorney general, Kris Kobach, argues that the new law prevents the state health department, which issues birth certificates, from changing the sex listing while also requiring it to undo past changes.

The issue is in federal court because of a lawsuit filed in 2018 over a previous no-changes policy. Kelly's administration settled that lawsuit, and a judge's order enforcing the settlement requires the state to allow transgender people to alter their birth certificates. More than 900 people have done so over the past four years.