As of Thursday, transgender people in Kansas whose driver’s licenses do not reflect their sex assigned at birth are breaking the law if they drive, after the Republican -controlled legislature stripped them of previously valid credentials by overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a sweeping new measure. More than 1,000 residents are affected, and the change took effect immediately with no grace period. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ + news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter. The letters notifying trans residents of the move are blunt, bureaucratic, and devastating in their implications. “If you have received this notice,” the Kansas Division of Vehicles tells transgender residents, “your current Kansas credential will no longer be valid.” Related : Kansas lawmakers override governor's veto of anti-trans 'bathroom bounty' bill Related : Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes anti-trans 'bathroom bounty' bill Those words, pulled directly from official letters obtained by Erin in the Morning, mark the beginning of one of the most aggressive rollbacks of transgender legal recognition in the country. Hours after lawmakers overrode Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 244, the state began mailing notices informing transgender Kansans that driver’s licenses and state IDs listing a gender different from their sex assigned at birth must be surrendered immediately. “The Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials,” the letter states. “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.” According to Reuters, the change affects more than 1,000 transgender residents whose gender markers on driver’s licenses and birth certificates had previously been corrected. Kansas officials have estimated roughly 1,700 driver’s licenses and a similar number of birth certificates are impacted, according to the Kansas City Star. The law also bars future changes to gender markers on those documents and requires residents to pay for replacement credentials. Kansas now stands apart nationally. While several GOP-controlled states have blocked future updates to gender markers, Kansas is retroactively voiding documents already issued in a rare and expansive step that effectively erases prior legal recognition. Kansas’s current stance marks a dramatic reversal from where the state stood just seven years ago. In June 2019, after a federal lawsuit, Kansas agreed to allow transgender residents to update the sex listed on their birth certificates to match their gender identity. That policy was one of the last in a series of incremental legal recognitions of transgender rights in the state before subsequent litigation and Republican-led legislation began rolling it back. Related : Kansas governor passes law requiring ID to view acts of 'homosexuality' online, vetoes anti-LGBTQ+ bill The law extends beyond identification cards. It requires transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings that correspond to their sex assigned at birth. For many residents, the consequences are immediate and practical. A driver’s license is not merely permission to operate a vehicle; it is a key to employment, housing, air travel, and voter participation. Kansas requires photo identification to vote, meaning the sudden invalidation of IDs could disrupt civic participation. The policy also places people in legal limbo. Under Kansas law, driving without a valid license is a misdemeanor that can carry fines or possible jail time. The state’s own letter emphasizes that filing an appeal “will not preserve the validity of your current credential and associated driving authority.” For transgender Kansans now scrambling to replace essential documents, the inconvenience is anything but abstract. “We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you,” it concludes.