Community members gathered Monday evening at South Park and marched down Massachusetts Street to protest for transgender rights amid the recent passage of anti-trans legislation. 

Several dozen people gathered to voice their concerns about Senate Bill 244, which invalidates transgender people’s corrected driver’s licenses and criminalizes trans people who use bathrooms that align with their gender identity rather than bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth in public buildings.

Connor O’Reilly, an organizer from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said he was proud of everyone who attended the protest to show their support. 

“It’s time to demand our own rights. I feel pride looking at everyone who came out here that said enough is enough,” O’Reilly said. “It’s hard for me to continue on and wake up every single day and continue to fight. I’m holding back tears because seeing everyone here is a wonderful scene.”

PSL and Boots on the Ground Midwest organized the protest along with other organizations from the Lawrence area. PSL organizer Sybil Miller is from the Kansas City area but said it’s important to expand activism to cities like Lawrence. 

“This is one of the most cruel and extreme bills in recent memory, and it’s likely not the last of its kind in this country,” Miller said. “We have to remember that bills like this are a response to the rise of acceptance of trans people. It’s the lashing out of a dying ideology.”

Protesters called upon the City of Lawrence and the University of Kansas not to enforce the bill. Miller said doing so would make Lawrence a “beacon of hope” for LGBTQ+ acceptance. 

“Let’s set an example for cities across the country and make legislators think twice before voting for a bill like this going forward,” Miller said. 

Hazel Krebs shared her experience as an transgender advocate, who celebrated five years since her transition at the same time the bill was passed. 

“In a matter of moments, transgenders became second-class citizens deemed unworthy of identification that matches who we are,” Krebs said. “The entire structure is broken. Kansas is the epicenter for anti-trans laws and they’re getting passed across the nation.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of two transgender men from Lawrence. The next hearing is scheduled for late September.

Maya Smith, (she/her), reporting correspondent, has been with The Lawrence Times since February 2026. She was born and raised in Lawrence and is a journalism student at the University of Kansas. She works at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications as a communications assistant and has been a freelance reporter for the Kansas Reflector since 2024.

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