Kansas GOP Passes Sweeping Anti-Transgender Bill
Kansas Republicans seem to have the votes to override an expected gubernatorial veto of their sweeping bill restricting transgender rights.
Kansas Republicans have passed a bill imposing some of the most severe restrictions on transgender people’s ability to present and live as their authentic self. They appear poised to overturn a possible veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
The bill bans people from using bathrooms, locker rooms, or other facilities that don’t match their assigned sex at birth, and strictly defines “sex” as “either male or female, at birth.”
It effectively erases nonbinary, gender-fluid, and gender-nonconforming people’s identities and prevents the state from officially recognizing them.
The bill restricts people to prisons, jails, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and other single-sex spaces based on a person’s assigned sex at birth, ostensibly to protect “the health, safety and privacy” of cisgender people who would otherwise be forced to share facilities with transgender individuals.
It also prevents transgender people from changing their name or gender marker on driver’s licenses and birth certificates — even though Kansas is still bound by a 2019 federal court order requiring the state to allow transgender people to amend the gender marker on their birth certificates.
Kansas House members included provisions in the bill requiring accommodations for intersex people or those born with chromosomes, genitalia, or reproductive organs not associated with typical definitions for males or females.
Supporters of the measure dubbed it a “Women’s Bill of Rights,” arguing that there is a need for single-sex spaces for females.
The bill’s verbiage was based on boilerplate language circulated by national anti-transgender groups who have pushed for similar measures in Congress or other states.
The measure passed the Kansas Senate by a vote of 28-12 on Tuesday, April 4, after passing the House of Representatives last month by a vote of 83-41, with one conservative Republican House member absent. That means that even if Kelly vetoes the measure, supporters likely have the votes to override her and enact the bill into law.
Kelly previously vetoed a bill seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams or in activities designated for females, only to have the Republican-dominated legislature override her veto on Wednesday, reports CNN.
Lawmakers are also pushing for a bill to bar doctors from prescribing gender-affirming treatments to transgender-identifying youth wishing to transition, such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgical interventions.
However, experts note that surgery is not typically recommended for minors, and that some transgender people, even as adults, never opt for surgical interventions.
If such a bill passes, Kelly will likely veto it, although it remains to be seen whether Republicans will be able to marshal the votes needed to override a veto, given that the gender-affirming care ban would also infringe on parental rights and on the free speech of physicians seeking to treat youth suffering from gender dysphoria, and may not be a widely supported as demands for single-sex facilities or prohibitions on transgender athletes in sport.
In recent years, Republicans throughout the country have seized upon transgender issues and LGBTQ rights more broadly as political wedge issues that motivate conservative voters and attempt to portray Democrats as out of step with the majority of Americans.
Lawmakers in nearly every state have introduced bills seeking to restrict transgender rights in some way, playing on discomfort with gender-nonconformity and so-called “wokeness” to push through policies aimed at squelching transgender visibility or denying recognition of non-traditional gender identities.
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