Mississippi is poised to become the latest US state to restrict how transgender people are identified on official documents, after lawmakers passed a bill requiring driver’s licences to reflect sex assigned at birth.
Senate Bill 2322 was approved on Monday, 6 April, and now heads to Governor Tate Reeves, who is widely expected to sign it into law. If he does, the measure will take effect on 1 July.
The legislation would stop transgender residents from updating the gender marker on their driver’s licence, even if they have legally changed their gender through the courts. It would also prevent state authorities from recognising court orders that affirm a person’s gender change for the purposes of issuing licences.
Unlike a similar law recently passed in Kansas, the Mississippi bill would not immediately cancel existing identification documents. However, anyone renewing their licence after the law takes effect would be required to carry identification showing their sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity.
Critics say that would create serious risks for transgender people in everyday situations, including traffic stops, voting, entering venues, or any routine interaction that requires photo identification. They warn it could lead to forced outing, humiliation and increased exposure to discrimination or harm.
The ACLU of Mississippi is among those raising concerns, arguing that the bill could disproportionately affect both transgender people and immigrant communities. Alongside its provisions on gender markers, SB 2322 also includes measures relating to out-of-state licences and cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in some cases, combining several contentious issues into a single piece of legislation.
The bill forms part of a wider national push to restrict access to gender marker changes on official documents. If signed, Mississippi would join a growing number of states either limiting or outright banning those updates on driver’s licences.
Mississippi State Senator Rod Hickman has condemned the move, describing it as “degrading”.
Writing for Mississippi Today, Hickman said: “There has been no showing that allowing individuals to have identification that reflects who they are creates any safety risk. This provision does not prevent fraud. It does not assist law enforcement in any meaningful way. It does not make a single Mississippian safer.”
He added that the consequences would be deeply personal and potentially dangerous for those affected.
“More than that, it is degrading. It places people in situations where simply presenting identification can expose them to scrutiny, embarrassment or worse. When a person presents as one sex and his or her identification reflects another, it immediately calls the identity into question in settings where no such question should exist whether that is at a traffic stop, at a workplace, in a place of business or in any routine encounter that requires identification.”
For transgender Mississippians, the legislation would mean carrying state-issued identification that does not reflect who they are — a change opponents say is not about safety, but about erasing recognition.
