A meeting of the Kansas GOP State Committee – Photo: Republican Party of Kansas, via Facebook.
The Kansas Republican Party has approved a resolution to “oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
The party’s state committee endorsed the resolution on Saturday, while also saying the party recognizes the dignity of those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, reports The Wichita Eagle.
“God’s design for gender as determined by biological sex and not by self-perception,” the resolution states. It also notes the Kansas GOP’s opposition to efforts to surgically or hormonally alter an individual’s body to conform with “perceived gender identity.”
Eric Teetsel, the committee member that introduced the resolution and the president of the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, argued that the resolution was necessary in order to affirm certain principles that are supposed to guide the GOP.
“[U]ltimately, an ideology that says you can determine your own gender identity is broken and it’s going to lead to a lot of pain, and that’s why it’s important to bring us back to what we know to be true and good,” Teetsel told the Eagle.
The resolution was one of several approved during the state convention, including one, also proposed by Teetsel, that emphasizes the importance of “religious freedom.”
The official Republican Party platform is silent on transgender issues but does oppose same-sex marriage, saying “our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage.”
Teetsel notes that his resolution on human sexuality begins by affirming the dignity of LGBTQ people, something that, he says, shows it is not motivated by animus.
“Ultimately, we are motivated by love,” he said. “It is concern for the well-being of others that drives us to seek out what is true and not just for society, but for them personally.”
But Equality Kansas vehemently disagrees with that characterization of the resolution. The organization issued a statement saying that it was “incredibly disappointed” that Kansas Republicans had promoted “such an undignified and crass assault.”
“This is a cheap election year attack by Sam Brownback’s son-in-law, and yet another attempt to dehumanize those who do not fit inside the narrow world view of Brownback, his family, and his wing of the Republican party,” said Equality Kansas director Tom Witt.
The Kansas GOP, which historically was divided between ultra-conservatives and center-right moderates, has taken a hard-right turn in recent years on social issues, particularly under former Gov. Sam Brownback, who was confirmed last month as the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
During Brownback’s tenure, either the governor or the legislature made several moves to curb LGBTQ rights, whether it was Brownback repealing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ state employees, or the legislature passing a bill to allow on-campus organizations to turn away prospective members who are LGBTQ-identifying.
In 2016, the Kansas Senate also approved a resolution “supporting student privacy and safety” after the Obama administration issued guidance stating that transgender students should be treated according to their gender identity, including being allowed to use restrooms that match their gender identity.
A video shows a Burger King manager -- who also owns the franchise -- ordering an irate female customer to leave after she tried to get an employee disciplined for allegedly misgendering her, despite the fact that she had repeatedly misgendered the worker first.
It’s unclear when the video was recorded, but it has been circulating widely in recent days.
The video, filmed from the customer’s point of view, opens with her at a Kansas Burger King demanding to speak with the manager. A male employee goes to get the manager, prompting the customer to demand the manager’s full name. The employee tells her he doesn’t know the manager’s last name.
Tyler Getchell of Jacksonville, Florida, has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting and partially paralyzing his neighbor, Kyle McFarlane, during an argument over what Getchell believed was trespassing.
McFarlane told police he was gathering discarded furniture for a bonfire on November 22 when Getchell and his girlfriend came outside and yelled at him to get off their property, First Coast News reported.
According to the police report, video footage shows McFarlane standing on a property easement -- not on his neighbors' land -- just before the shooting.
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), 213 Democratic U.S. representatives, as well as Delegates Stacey Plaskett (Virgin Islands), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), and Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández (Puerto Rico), are demanding that Johnson rebuke Republican lawmakers for using "demonizing and dehumanizing" language when speaking about the transgender community.
"We write to you to strongly condemn the rise in anti-transgender rhetoric, including from members of Congress, and to urge you to ensure members of Congress are following rules of decorum and not using their platforms to demonize and scapegoat any marginalized community, including the transgender community," the Democrats' letter reads.
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