Idaho Quietly Banned Driver’s License Gender Changes Almost 2 Months Ago. Idaho Republicans Didn't Even Notice.

With no prior notice or warning, trans Idahoans have suddenly found themselves unable to obtain accurate IDs. The state’s Republicans don’t even seem to know.

The Idaho State Capitol in Boise | Image: Wikimedia Commons

Just five months ago, the legal landscape for trans people seeking to update their documents was vastly different than it is today. At the time, Trump’s passport policy was still blocked, the Kansas Supreme Court had just allowed gender marker changes on IDs, and overall, only 3 of the 7 states with active bans on trans people changing their birth certificates also extended that policy to driver’s licenses.

Since then, the list of states that deny trans people the ability to amend their birth certificates has grown to 9: Idaho was allowed to enforce its ban back in January, and South Dakota’s Supreme Court ruled against the changes last week. However, the same can’t be said for driver’s licenses, because during this same period, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma have all stripped trans people of their ability to obtain accurate IDs. Or at least that’s what had been previously reported.

Now, Transitics has confirmed with an Idaho Department of Transportation representative that Idaho has banned gender marker changes too—and it did so around 2 months ago. In fact, this ban was implemented so quietly that not even some Idaho DOT employees seemed to know.

Interestingly, the policy itself—despite never having been publicly acknowledged or reported on—was actually implemented in 2024. That year, Idaho joined other Republican-led states in passing a strict “sex definitions” law, in this case HB 421, mandating that all governmental agencies recognize “sex” as inherently binary and “biological.” While laws strictly defining sex have had little impact on IDs in states like North Dakota, Ohio, and Wyoming, the same cannot be said about Idaho.

Instead, the DOT opted to interpret the law narrowly and began requiring amended birth certificates for any gender changes, reversing the state’s 11-year policy allowing trans people to obtain accurate IDs by submitting a note from a physician confirming their identity. At the time, this wasn’t visibly problematic. After all, thanks to a 2018 injunction, trans Idahoans were able to obtain accurate birth certificates by simply completing a form and waiting a few weeks. But injunctions don’t last forever.

Thus, when the injunction was lifted in January, trans people’s ability to update their driver’s licenses went along with it. Although gender changes aren’t explicitly banned, they have become impossible for most. Like in Indiana and Iowa, whether or not a person’s documents reflect who they are will be dependent on where they were born—a factor entirely beyond their control.

And worse, this fact has gone entirely unacknowledged by the state itself: on the day of the ruling, Idaho’s attorney general released a statement celebrating that Idaho can now require that “birth certificates…reflect biological sex recorded at birth.” Even in court filings, the secret driver’s license policy was never mentioned. Furthermore, despite serving as a testing ground for many anti-trans laws that have since spread to other states, the Republican-dominated legislature has not attempted to weigh in on the issue at all since it first began passing anti-trans laws 6 years ago.

As a result of these actions, the number of states that ban trans people from obtaining accurate driver’s licenses has already doubled in just the first three months of 2026. And currently, Mississippi is actively advancing a bill that would see it join this growing list. So, at least as of right now, here is what the current landscape for trans people’s IDs looks like:

For sources, tables, and more maps, head to Transitics’ CATPALM page.

But based on how Idaho’s policy was implemented, one thing is clear: Idaho Republicans know that they don’t gain anything from restricting trans people’s IDs. Here, there was no fanfare, official notice, small statement on the Idaho DOT website, or any sort of justification. It’s just naked hate. And trans Idahoans pay the price.