When Iridescent Roney turned up at the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics to hand in her birth certificate on Feb. 26, the staff were even more confused than she was.
Roney was one of roughly 1,700 transgender people whose Kansas-issued driver's licenses and birth certificates were revoked by a new law, which was passed eight days earlier by the state’s Republican supermajority over a veto by Democratic Gov Laura Kelly.
For years, Kansas was one of a dwindling handful of U.S. states that refused to let trans people change their gender on official documents. The policy made it impossible for trans people to hide their history whenever they flashed their I.D., potentially exposing them to discrimination and violence.
The law wasn't made in good faith. Most laws don't go into effect immediately because law has to be turned into policy to be administrated. The administrations responsible for enforcing it reacting to a law have to figure out how they're going to do that.
That requires meetings, decisions, policies, communication, possibly training, etc. In this case, the agencies basically had to react overnight because the law enforcement effectively went into force immediately. The logical result is everyone is winging it . . .
When the law is confusing, people have more leeway to discriminate as they wish and get away with it. And when the law explicitly encourages employees to be overly strict by threatening prosecution if they mistakenly help somebody vote that they weren’t supposed to, like a person not matching their birth certificate sex… they’ll err on the side of discriminating and not getting in trouble.
because slackjawed yokels don't keep up with what the monster ghouls they elect because the (R) is next to their name get up to. Totally shocking I'm sure to figure out incurious reactionaries are only capable of reactionary thought when their reactionary figures act reactionary.
it's why trans people have been such an effective boogeyman, most people don't know any (out) trans people (you all totally do they just don't tell you and they pass). Which saves the GOP from the usual issue these culture wars run into, in which the slackjawed yokel discovers the boogeyman is actually their uncle and he's nothing like what Fox News says, and if they lied about that what else do they lie about?
The office doesn't normally have to cope with literally-overnight rule changes with no warning or consultation beforehand. The State legislature sprung this on the state's bureaucracy as much as they sprung it on trans people, because confusion and ambiguity serve their purposes: maybe this way the rules will be interpreted extra broadly.
"very likely", lmao. he even met his sad excuse for a wife when she was one of epstein's women. Was she underage and exploited, like his other girls? I do not know.
> “Right now, it’s just the gender marker on my ID, which I thought was settled,” Snow told The Independent. “But I have two school-age children and court papers verifying my paternity. That seems settled now, but are they going to try and invalidate those, too?”
This is exactly the point. What this article makes clear is that this sort of dehumanisation doesn't stop until trans people themselves are eliminated. It's not enough to destroy their humanity and make them non-persons in society - the end goal is their elimination entirely. I would hope the escalation of laws makes that abundantly clear.
The state is strongly Republican in presidential elections; it hasn’t voted for a Democrat since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won the presidency in a landslide. In 2024, Donald Trump won by 57% to 41% over Kamala Harris.
FAFO
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that trans people in Kansas probably aren't the ones voting for Republicans. The rest of their state votes for the inhuman monster party and they end up suffering. Not really FAFO situation.
Correct. Aside from a few extremely loud, extremely stupid outliers, most trans people understand that the genocidal child-rapist party doesn't have their best interests at heart.
Right, it's a flyover state absolutely filled to the brim with know nothing imbeciles who wouldn't know history if it smacked them in the head, which it's doing now. Point being that if I were trans, I wouldn't live there on a bet.
[OP] theindependentonline | 5 hours ago
When Iridescent Roney turned up at the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics to hand in her birth certificate on Feb. 26, the staff were even more confused than she was.
Roney was one of roughly 1,700 transgender people whose Kansas-issued driver's licenses and birth certificates were revoked by a new law, which was passed eight days earlier by the state’s Republican supermajority over a veto by Democratic Gov Laura Kelly.
For years, Kansas was one of a dwindling handful of U.S. states that refused to let trans people change their gender on official documents. The policy made it impossible for trans people to hide their history whenever they flashed their I.D., potentially exposing them to discrimination and violence.
tenth | 5 hours ago
I still don't understand why the staff were more confused
IAmLee2022 | 5 hours ago
The law wasn't made in good faith. Most laws don't go into effect immediately because law has to be turned into policy to be administrated. The administrations responsible for enforcing it reacting to a law have to figure out how they're going to do that.
That requires meetings, decisions, policies, communication, possibly training, etc. In this case, the agencies basically had to react overnight because the law enforcement effectively went into force immediately. The logical result is everyone is winging it . . .
Rastiln | 3 hours ago
Which is part of the point.
When the law is confusing, people have more leeway to discriminate as they wish and get away with it. And when the law explicitly encourages employees to be overly strict by threatening prosecution if they mistakenly help somebody vote that they weren’t supposed to, like a person not matching their birth certificate sex… they’ll err on the side of discriminating and not getting in trouble.
wambulancer | 5 hours ago
because slackjawed yokels don't keep up with what the monster ghouls they elect because the (R) is next to their name get up to. Totally shocking I'm sure to figure out incurious reactionaries are only capable of reactionary thought when their reactionary figures act reactionary.
it's why trans people have been such an effective boogeyman, most people don't know any (out) trans people (you all totally do they just don't tell you and they pass). Which saves the GOP from the usual issue these culture wars run into, in which the slackjawed yokel discovers the boogeyman is actually their uncle and he's nothing like what Fox News says, and if they lied about that what else do they lie about?
like_a_pharaoh | 2 hours ago
The office doesn't normally have to cope with literally-overnight rule changes with no warning or consultation beforehand. The State legislature sprung this on the state's bureaucracy as much as they sprung it on trans people, because confusion and ambiguity serve their purposes: maybe this way the rules will be interpreted extra broadly.
jxj24 | 4 hours ago
The cruelty is the point™
bottlecandoor | an hour ago
Voter suppression is their goal.
CheapWeight8403 | 57 minutes ago
This is like 1100 people in the state. It's not a large enough group to sway elections. The cruelty is the point, it riles up their hateful base.
arkofjoy | 5 hours ago
And yet they are happy to continue to protect their leader who was very likely raping children.
seethruyou | 20 minutes ago
"very likely", lmao. he even met his sad excuse for a wife when she was one of epstein's women. Was she underage and exploited, like his other girls? I do not know.
Quouar | an hour ago
> “Right now, it’s just the gender marker on my ID, which I thought was settled,” Snow told The Independent. “But I have two school-age children and court papers verifying my paternity. That seems settled now, but are they going to try and invalidate those, too?”
This is exactly the point. What this article makes clear is that this sort of dehumanisation doesn't stop until trans people themselves are eliminated. It's not enough to destroy their humanity and make them non-persons in society - the end goal is their elimination entirely. I would hope the escalation of laws makes that abundantly clear.
The United States is not safe for trans people.
Quouar | an hour ago
Archive link, for those who need it. :)
Tokenside | 4 hours ago
The state is strongly Republican in presidential elections; it hasn’t voted for a Democrat since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won the presidency in a landslide. In 2024, Donald Trump won by 57% to 41% over Kamala Harris.
FAFO
DeliciousAnt9096 | 4 hours ago
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that trans people in Kansas probably aren't the ones voting for Republicans. The rest of their state votes for the inhuman monster party and they end up suffering. Not really FAFO situation.
MarsupialMadness | 3 hours ago
Correct. Aside from a few extremely loud, extremely stupid outliers, most trans people understand that the genocidal child-rapist party doesn't have their best interests at heart.
seethruyou | 17 minutes ago
Right, it's a flyover state absolutely filled to the brim with know nothing imbeciles who wouldn't know history if it smacked them in the head, which it's doing now. Point being that if I were trans, I wouldn't live there on a bet.