I learned today that the motto of Kansas, translated from Latin, means “to the stars through difficulties.” When I heard late last week about the slimy maneuver that the GOP led Legislature did yesterday, I thought more of Ralph Kramden’s threats to his wife: “To the moon, Alice, to the moon.” That is exactly where I’d like to send the GOP-led Legislature.
My anger centers around SB244, a bill, now a law, that requires transgender Kansans to have their drivers’ licenses list only their sex at birth. It also includes bathroom bill language and, as I understand it, offers a $1000 bounty to any resident who outs a trans person using a bathroom that does not match their sex at birth. The bill, passed by the Legislature, was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, and the veto was subsequently overridden by the Legislature. The new law took effect immediately and invalidated all the licenses of trans people listing their identified gender in the state, requiring them to obtain revised licenses replacing gender markers they fought to receive with those of their sex at birth instead. There were also penalties for being caught driving with an license listing a gender marker other than sex at birth. I’m sure those small-minded GOP legislators are just so darned proud of themselves for sticking it to the trans community in the state, which amounts to roughly 1,800 people!
I will discuss another particularly cruel element of this law: in a manner common to fascist states, it exposes and potentially humiliates each and every transgender person whenever their license is used for identification. Imagine being an attractive transwoman, a transwoman who easily “passes,” with a handsome photo on your driver’s license yet the gender marker on that license lists you as male. You are outed in the most embarrassing way each time you show your license. Here you are, just trying to live your life quietly as a woman, but now your “secret” is out and your dignity, and potentially your safety, is compromised.
If you’ve been following my essays here the last six years or so, you know I am very open about being a transgender woman on the pages of this paper. I do it to hopefully open minds and create increased societal acceptance — and I think that, at least in some small way, I have been successful in that endeavor. Despite this, I would be horrified if I had a license that labeled me with the wrong gender. There are times when I want, I truly need, to be discrete.
Now, Kansas has never been on my list of places I wanted to visit, I’d prefer to keep going over it by plane — because I’d never drive through it — until I hit Colorado, which I’d love to visit. Still, I feel for my transgender brothers and sisters who are wrapped up in this. Of course the other people that could get wrapped up in this are cisgendered people in public restrooms who might be mistaken for transgender folks. How humiliating would it be to be a mannish-looking woman or a man of small stature being called out for being trans while using the appropriate rest room. Hey, anything to get the $1,000 bounty!
I trust that this new law will be overturned in court and suits are currently underway, but given the crazy environment we are living in, that is anything but a sure thing. Laws like those derived from SB244-type bills obviously point to bigotry, conservative Christian extremism, and plain old ignorance. I am just glad to live in a state, in a community, that allows me to live as myself, without question, even if the gender I identify as, does not match the body I was born with. I know my transgender friends feel likewise.
Mariel E. Addis is a native of Florence. She left the area for 16 years but returned in 2013.