Warren praises Kansas for allowing transgender residents to change birth certificates

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) praised Kansas officials on Friday for allowing transgender residents to change the gender indicator on their birth certificate to match their gender identity. 

“I’m glad to see Kansas take this necessary step and recognize trans Americans for who they are. The rest of the country should do the same,” Warren, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted Friday.

I’m glad to see Kansas take this necessary step and recognize trans Americans for who they are. The rest of the country should do the same. https://t.co/ebzWot7A4r

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) June 28, 2019

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which issues birth certificates, entered into a consent decision last week to end a federal lawsuit filed in October by four transgender people and the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project against the state. Judge Daniel Crabtree issued an order to make the agreement binding, NBC News reported.

{mosads}“It was time for Kansas to move past its outdated and discriminatory anti-transgender policy,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said in a Monday press release. “This decision acknowledges that transgender people have the same rights as anyone else, including the right to easily obtain a birth certificate that reflects who they are.”

The agreement reverses a state policy enacted under former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) that made Kansas one of the toughest states in the country in which to change a person’s gender on their birth certificate, according to NBC News.

To make the change, residents would have to provide license or passport reflecting it as well as an affidavit from a doctor or mental health professional, according to The Wichita Eagle.

Warren has supported a bevy of policies aimed at protecting LGBTQ rights, including federal nondiscrimination laws like the Equality Act to serve LGBTQ communities. She also has supported reversing the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.