On Sunday night in Kansas City the LGBTQIA+ community in Kansas City, Missouri held a Townhall in a supportive establishment on Main Street. More than 150 people attended the over two-hour standing room only event.

Arden Pearson, Missouri Kansas Queer Law:
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….Our family law branch is getting a lot more busy now that we, after the election, so we do divorces, we do a lot of second parent adoptions right now, and really, anything under the family law umbrella we’re willing to talk about…

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…We’ve seen a really big influx of cases after the election, which really makes a lot of sense, it’s a scary time, you want to get your items in order. Uh, so, because of that we have had to refer some more people on than we would like to do. So, we are trying to get a good network of attorneys that we trust with our queer clients and that we can refer people on to. So, even if you don’t know if we can handle the kind of law or like the legal question that you have, feel free to reach out and we’ll see if can put you in touch with someone that we think can help you. That’s kind of our goal…

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…So, we will do gender marker changes in Missouri and name changes in both Kansas and Missouri. If you are worried about getting a gender marker change in Missouri because of how strict their laws are and you only have hormone therapy, please reach out to us, we can talk to you about getting that done and taken care of.

So, I’ve had, like I said, I’ve had a lot of people come and want to speak to me and my law partner because of the election results and what is going to happen, what the future is going to hold. We have no idea. But we have some thoughts. And I’m going to share probably the two most asked questions that I have received so far.

So, the first one is about marriage. Do we think that you marriage is going to go away? And in the off chance that it does, what can I do to protect the legal rights that I already have?

We don’t think that they are going to be going after gay marriage because I think they’re going after trans rights. And gay marriage is lower on the, on their bucket list at this stage. They’re not too concerned about it. However, I understand that that is a fear. I think that we’re going to see it coming from really far away because there is several layers of protection at this stage. We still have Obergefell and President Biden and the Congress got, passed the freedom to marry in 2022 [Public Law No: 117-228 (12/13/2022); Respect for Marriage Act]. So, there are several layers of protection that they have to go through, so we’ll see it coming.

However, it’s still fair to be nervous. And my main recommendation is to get your estate plan in order, get that all taken care of, and powers of attorney. So, powers of attorney are really important, especially for trans folks who don’t have affirming family. So, you can have two different kinds of powers of attorney. Medical and then a general, which I generally say is for, like, financial things. If you are a trans person and you don’t have affirming family, I highly recommend getting a medical power of attorney put in place right away. Because you can designate who will make medical decisions for you if you’re incapacitated. That’s really important…

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…And then the other question that I’ve been getting asked a lot is about trans rights. Um, we, like I said, that’s where I think people, the, that’s what’s being attacked the most right now. Um, and medical care’s really scary, the Supreme Court heard that for adolescents this week. And the Supreme Court will take a while, so we’ll hear about that in a little bit. But my biggest recommendation is to work on getting your gender marker done if you live in Missouri as soon as possible.

And the biggest thing is to get your passport taken care of. So, your passport is a federal document, so that’s the quickest thing that Trump can change. Um, and right now it’s a self-attestation to change your gender marker on your passport. So, you can just request that they change it and they will. You can also get an X gender marker on there. And with a passport you can have a passport book or you can also get just like a card. So, you can use that for like almost any kind of identification, except for a driving incident. So, if you can’t get your preferred gender or, not your preferred gender, your gender on the correct documentation, like if you live in Kansas, a passport is a really good option. And because it’s federal we are recommending that you get that taken care of right now.

Um, my final note on that is if you are non-binary and looking at the X gender marker there are some considerations to think about if you are actually traveling outside the United States. Um, some folks are not friendly for trans people and that outs you very, very quickly. So, think about it, but the option is there…

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Previously:

LGBTQIA+ Townhall Meeting – Kansas City, Missouri – December 8, 2024 (December 9, 2024)

Justice Horn – LGBTQIA+ Townhall Meeting – Kansas City, Missouri – December 8, 2024 (December 10, 2024)

Liz Davis – LGBTQIA+ Townhall Meeting – Kansas City, Missouri – December 8, 2024 (December 10, 2024)