Updated March 4, 2026 at 3:35 PM CST
Governor Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma lawmakers removed state agency administrative rules that allow people to change their sex markers on state driver's licenses Tuesday evening. A lawyer working with trans Oklahomans said it's a "significant blow" to their rights.
Administrative rules for Service Oklahoma, which acts as the provider of state driver and motor vehicle services, allowed Oklahomans to change information on and replace a license for reasons of a physical and psychological sex change due to gender dysphoria.
For example, in the case of a physical sex change, Oklahomans would need an original or certified court order for a name change, if applicable, and a notarized statement from a physician who performed the sex change operation stating it is "irreversible and permanent." They would also need proof of their former legal name, which would be entered into the "Alias" field in the driver's license database.
House Joint Resolution 1032, which repealed those rules, was authored by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, and Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair. It passed through the House in May 2025 and the Senate on Feb. 25 this year.
Stitt signed the measure Tuesday, giving it the force and effect of law. A spokesperson from Service Oklahoma said in an email that the repeal does not affect driver's licenses that have already been changed.
Last week on the Senate floor, Bergstrom said this measure aligns Service Oklahoma rules with a 2021 executive order, which banned the amendment of birth certificates in any way that's inconsistent with state statute, and Senate Bill 1100 from 2022, which required the sex designation on a birth certificate be male or female and prohibited nonbinary designations.
Bergstrom said administrative amendments for gender identity changes had already effectively ended.
But attorney Josh Payton said he's helped more than 300 transgender Oklahomans amend their name and gender on official documents, including driver's licenses, since 2020. Payton runs the Oklahoma Equality Law Center in Tulsa, where he and his wife spend hundreds of hours each year helping Oklahomans navigate the court process.
"The governor is trying to take individual rights away from Oklahomans," Payton said. "All persons should have the ability to have the identification documents that they deserve."
Payton argues the resolution differs from federal law, citing the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires states to include a person's gender on a driver's license, not their sex. He said the rules lawmakers removed were added in 2019 to comply with federal law.
He said repealing them will make his job harder.
"Now, Service Oklahoma gets a court order from a judge and they'll be like, 'I can't do anything. I don't have rules that allow me to process this,'" Payton said. "Then we'll have to go to court to force them to do that. That'll get into federal rights, and then that's how it gets up to the Supreme Court."
A spokesperson for Gov. Stitt said the resolution affirms his office's position that state law "requires state-issued driver licenses and IDs to record only biological sex, not gender identity."
"In Oklahoma, we are clear about the differences between men and women, and it is important that identification reflects that," the spokesperson said in an email statement.
This change follows a new policy that went into effect in Kansas last week, invalidating the driver's licenses and birth certificates of individuals who changed their gender marker.
According to reporting from the Kansas Reflector, the Kansas Department of Revenue sent a letter to trans individuals last week saying their licenses are invalid. But independent journalist Marisa Kabas reported an internal memo said no records have been invalidated.
The Kansas Reflector reported that although the new law invalidates licenses immediately, Kansas Department of Revenue employees must review each record to determine why sex markers were changed.
