Good Day to you all,
At the Human Rights Alliance, we are all deeply concerned about the new laws that have taken effect today in Kansas that seriously impact the trans community there and could potentially start happening in other states.
Board President Michaleangelo D’Arrigo has articulated these concerns and our position in the following Press Release/Statement from The Human Rights Alliance:
Statement
Human Rights Alliance
February 27, 2026
Human Rights Alliance Condemns Kansas’ Revocation of Transgender Driver’s Licenses and Cruel Bathroom “Bounty” Law — Reaffirms New Mexico’s Commitment to Equality
Santa Fe, NM — The Human Rights Alliance stands in strong and unequivocal opposition to the State of Kansas’ alarming escalation of discriminatory policies targeting transgender people — policies that retroactively invalidate gender-affirming identification documents and impose punitive bathroom restrictions enforced through private lawsuits and penalties.
On February 26, 2026, the Kansas Legislature voted to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto and enact Senate Bill 244, a sweeping package of anti-transgender measures. This law retroactively voids previously valid driver’s licenses and birth certificates that reflect a transgender person’s gender identity and demands surrender of those IDs without any grace period or regard for the real-world consequences for individuals who depend on valid identification for travel, employment, housing, healthcare, voting, and daily life. The law also mandates that public bathrooms and locker rooms in government buildings be designated based on sex assigned at birth, with criminal penalties and private lawsuits of at least $1,000 allowed against people accused of “violating” these restrictions.
Let us be clear: stripping people of legally issued identification documents and then weaponizing bathroom access against them is not governance — it is state-sanctioned erasure and persecution.
Driver’s licenses and state IDs are not symbolic tokens. They are essential credentials required for fundamental participation in society. Forcing transgender people to abandon valid IDs they have lawfully held overnight, while erecting a legal regime where anyone can sue a transgender person for simply using a restroom consistent with their gender identity, creates a climate of fear, harassment, and marginalization.
As Board President of the Human Rights Alliance, I call this action exactly what it is: a calculated assault on the dignity and safety of transgender individuals — a community already disproportionately targeted by violence and discrimination.
This is not about privacy. This is not about safety. This is about power.
This is about a government deciding that it knows a person better than that person knows themselves.
This is about creating a bounty-style regime that invites strangers into the most intimate and vulnerable spaces of other people’s lives under threat of civil suit.
And it is wrong.
Here in New Mexico, we have chosen a different path.
New Mexico law explicitly protects individuals on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Our state allows gender marker updates on identification documents. Our legal framework affirms dignity rather than weaponizing paperwork and private litigation.
From Santa Fe to Albuquerque, from Las Cruces to Rio Rancho, our communities are stronger because we celebrate diversity rather than punish it.
We understand that inclusion is not weakness. It is stability. It is safety. It is democracy functioning as it should.
The contrast could not be clearer.
Kansas has chosen regression.
New Mexico has chosen respect.
The Human Rights Alliance calls upon federal authorities, civil rights organizations, and elected leaders across the country to challenge this discriminatory rollback of rights and expansion of harassment-driven enforcement. We stand in solidarity with transgender Kansans who now face uncertainty, risk, and legal jeopardy simply for living authentically.
And we reaffirm this: In Santa Fe and across New Mexico, transgender people are not political pawns. They are our neighbors, our family members, our colleagues, our community leaders.
They are us.
We will not be silent when states attempt to erase our siblings’ identities or invite strangers to sue them into submission.
Dignity is not negotiable.
Human rights are not conditional.
And we will continue to defend both.
The Right Rev. M. A. D’Arrigo
Board President
