Amid an especially brutal crackdown on trans rights in Kansas, one organization is taking steps to ensure trans people in the state know their lives matter.

Mayday Health, a New York City-based nonprofit focused on reproductive health and gender-affirming care education, expects to reach about 1.2 million drivers with a four-week billboard campaign that declares, “God Made Trans People” and directs folks to Mayday Health’s website.

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“When governments target folks and violate their fundamental rights, we respond,” Liv Raisner, executive director of Mayday Health, said in a press release announcing the initiative. “In Kansas and beyond, we’re reminding trans people that they are not alone, and information about gender-affirming care is a click away.”

“Trans people deserve the same freedom as all Americans,” Raisner added. “They belong everywhere, from the halls of government to the bathrooms that align with their identities.”

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In February, Kansas officials ordered trans people to surrender their driver’s licenses or face steep penalties and misdemeanor charges.

The move, which Erin in the Morning described as “the most significant erosions of transgender civil rights in the United States to date,” comes after state Republicans pushed through an anti-trans law over Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto.

Among other anti-trans provisions that Republican lawmakers snuck into the unrelated bill in January, S.B. 244 requires Kansas driver’s licenses and birth certificates to indicate a person’s sex assigned at birth regardless of their gender identity.

The letter, dated February 23, noted that the state Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials in the law.

“This means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credential will be invalid immediately and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential,” the letter stated.

“Pursuant to the new law, if the gender/sex indication on the face of your current credential does not match your sex assigned at birth, you are directed to surrender your current credential to the Kansas Division of Vehicles. Upon surrendering the credential, you will be issued a new credential reflecting the gender identification consistent with statutory requirements.”

LGBTQ Nation writer Cody Hays explained the weightiness of the order: “What makes S.B. 244 particularly significant is not that it is an outlier. It is a completion. Over the past three years, Kansas has passed a series of laws restricting trans youth from gender-affirming medical care, blocking gender marker changes, and restricting athletic participation. Each law followed the same three-movement structure: establish trans people as dangerous, declare their identities medically or legally unfounded, and use administrative mechanisms to remove them from public and official life.”

The billboard campaign is trying to do the exact opposite: declare loudly and proudly that trans people belong everywhere.

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