The Legislature resurrected a transgender bathroom ban that bars transgender and intersex women from restrooms, locker rooms, rape crisis centers and other female-specific spaces, making Kansas the first state to enact such a wide-ranging measure.
The Senate revived a wide-ranging transgender bathroom ban, despite concerns that the ban is overly intrusive, but narrowly allowed Kelly’s veto of a bill essentially banning gender-affirming care for Kansans under the age of 18 to stand.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday shot down a bill that bans giving transgender kids gender-affirming medical treatment, and another that bars transgender women from women’s restrooms, shelters and other spaces.
”We know that our religion bears much of the responsibility for vilifying members of the LGBTQ+ communities. We also know that God loves all people, not in spite of who they are, but because of who they are,” Gretchen Meyer writes in this letter to the Times.
Molly Adams/Lawrence Times
Lawrence school board members on Monday spoke in support of transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students and staff in the district, following the Kansas Legislature’s approval of several bills diminishing transgender people’s rights.
Rep. Marvin Robinson, a KC Democrat, broke from party ranks to join 83 Republicans in their support for a bill that bans transgender and cisgender girls from playing together from the time they enter kindergarten.
”(L)awmakers have effectively legalized the abuse of children they claim to be protecting,” Clay Wirestone writes in this Kansas Reflector column.
The Legislature voted to effectively ban gender-affirming care for Kansans under the age of 18 and revoke the license of physicians who offered such care, comparing gender identity issues to smoking.
The Biden administration will advance a rule to make it more difficult for schools to exclude transgender youth athletes from competition based on their gender identity, a senior U.S. Education Department official told reporters Thursday.
Transgender girls are now blocked from playing women’s sports from kindergarten through college, following the Legislature’s successful override of Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a transgender student athlete ban.
