An investigation by independent trans journalist Aleksandra Vaca reveals that Indiana is poised to revoke the identity documents of trans residents in the state, just like Kansas before them.

In a worst-case scenario, trans Hoosiers with documents that don’t reflect their sex at birth could be charged with a felony for “committing fraud,” earning two and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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Key to the Kansas revocation scheme was keeping tabs on transgender people who’ve sought changes to their identity documents.

A database with that information identifies exactly who possesses the documents that the state wants to revoke, clearing the way to do it without a costly and time-consuming manual review of every birth certificate and driver’s license in state and county records.

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Vaca spoke with employees in five states that are hostile to trans identity and handle gender changes administratively about tracking trans people’s document changes, including Indiana, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia.

Employees in four of the states said amendments to gender markers are not flagged in their systems. West Virginia, for one, only keeps handwritten notes of changes, while Montana seals old birth certificates.

Indiana, however, has long been compiling lists of trans people in the state based on identity document change requests. One method is straightforward: requests for gender marker changes to both driver’s licenses and birth certificates are flagged in the state’s records system.

Another is a backdoor method: following passage of a “gender binary” bill in Indiana last year, the Department of Health was instructed to forward all trans people’s gender amendment requests to the Office of Attorney General Todd Rokita, while the AG “awaits guidance” on the new bill, Vaca was told.

As those requests accumulate, they’re added to a database of trans Hoosiers.

Vaca also confirmed that the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles internally flagged gender marker changes when they were still possible.

Should Rokita and the rest of the Republican state leadership decide to follow Kansas’ lead and revoke trans Hoosiers’ identity documents, it’ll be as easy as sending a letter to a mailing list already in their possession. Court records indicate the number of altered birth certificates alone is 1,558.

Indiana is well-positioned to carry out a Kansas-style crackdown on trans identity, having essentially “planned ahead” to do it. The lack of a similar database has held back trans-hostile states like Texas and Florida from outright revoking all trans IDs; instead, they’re pulling them as they come up for renewal.

“It’s likely not a question of if Rokita will move to revoke trans people’s documents, but rather a question of when,” Vaca writes. “Todd Rokita is laying the groundwork that will allow him to take trans people’s documents. That doesn’t happen by accident.”

In 2014, trans people in Indiana were allowed to update the gender marker on their birth certificates with a court order, but in March 2025, Gov. Mike Braun (R) signed an executive order banning the practice. The ACLU sued to stop the executive order.

In January 2020, the Indiana BMV stopped allowing people to choose an “X” gender marker on their driver’s licenses, after about a year of allowing it. Then-Attorney General Curtis Hill said that the BMV had overstepped its authority in allowing the nonbinary gender markers and said that “only the General Assembly” has the power to decide if nonbinary gender markers are allowed.

Then in February, the BMV quietly added a “Gender Change Rule Update” to its website:

“Effective Feb. 12, 2026, the BMV will no longer provide customers with the option to change their gender on their Indiana credential by using a court-ordered gender change or physician statement per Amended Rule 140 Indiana Administrative Code section 7-1.1-3.”

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