By defining sex, some states are denying transgender people legal recognition

TOPEKA, Kan. — Mack Allen, an 18-year-old high school senior from Kansas, braces for sideways glances, questioning looks and snide comments whenever he has to hand over his driver’s license, which still identifies him as female.

They’ve come from a police officer responding to a car accident. They’ve come from an urgent care employee loudly using the wrong name and pronouns. They’ve come from the people in the waiting room who overheard.

“It just feels gross because I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am now in my transition, and obviously I don’t look like a woman and I don’t sound like a woman,” said Allen, who has been on testosterone for two years.

Kansas enacted a law last year that ended legal recognition of transgender identities. The measure says there are only two sexes, male and female, that are based on a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth.

That law and others introduced around the nation this year — often labeled as “bills of rights” for women — are part of a push by conservatives who say states have a legitimate interest in restricting transgender people from competing on sports teams or using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

Critics argue the proposals to legally define sex as binary are essentially erasing transgender and nonbinary people’s existences by making it as difficult as possible for them to update documents, use facilities and generally participate authentically in public life.

They’re also creating uncertainty for the many intersex people — those born with physical traits that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female — with the measures unclear on how people would prove they’re exempt.

Some of the measures would remove the word gender, which refers to