Judge says Kansas shouldn’t keep changing trans people’s birth certificates due to new state law

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas officials shouldn’t keep changing transgender people’s birth certificates so the documents reflect their gender identities.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree approved Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach’s request to block the changes because of a new state law rolling back trans rights. Kansas joins Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee in barring such birth certificate changes.

Kansas is for now also among a few states that don’t let trans people change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities. That’s because of a separate state-court lawsuit Kobach filed last month. Both efforts are responses to the new state law, which took effect July 1.