Fridae

New research announced by the Williams Institute on 15 October estimates how many trans adults could be affected by Kansas’s restrictions on gender-marker changes in identity documents. Its October report looks at S.B. 244, a law enacted in February that also restricts restroom access in public buildings.

The report puts the driving-licence figure at about 3,300 trans adults living in Kansas. For birth certificates, the estimate is about 3,100 trans adults born in Kansas who had changed their gender marker before the law. A person could belong to both groups, so the figures cannot be added to give a total.

To calculate the licence estimate, the researchers used answers to the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey about holding a licence and changing its gender marker, together with an estimate of the adult trans population. They assumed that licences reported by Kansas residents came from Kansas.

The survey was voluntary and respondents were not randomly selected. The report’s authors acknowledge that their answers may not represent the state’s wider trans population.

The authors also warn that the document restrictions could worsen the barriers trans people face when they need identification to vote.