TOPEKA
Ryan Brooks stood in front of a Kansas Senate panel Tuesday and cried as she described seeing her daughter smile for the first time in years after she came out as transgender on her 12th birthday.
For years, Brooks said, her daughter showed clear signs of depression and warnings that she was thinking of suicide.
“When she finally told me, ‘Mom, I’m a girl,’ everything made sense,” Brooks said.
But Brooks said she feared the message her daughter would take away from legislation under consideration to prevent transgender girls in K-12 and higher education from participating in girls and women’s sports.
“This bill is telling children like my daughter that she is less than,” Brooks said.
In a packed committee room Tuesday the Senate Education committee rushed through more than 20 conferees on the measure in an hour, leaving no time for questions.
Opponents decried the bill, called the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” as unlawful discrimination that would place transgender youth at risk of bullying and self harm. The ACLU of Kansas is pledging to sue if the measure passes.
Proponents, however, say it protects opportunities provided to women through sports and Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bars sex discrimination in educational programs or activities receiving federal money. Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican who sponsored the bill, said those opportunities are under threat.
Current and former female athletes told the committee of the benefits they’d derived from sports and argued those would be eliminated if “male” athletes were allowed to participate.
“I cannot imagine trying to compete against people who had different advantages than I had and I was born with,” said Caroline Bruce McAndrew, a former Olympic Swimmer from Wichita.
In order to be considered this year, the committee would need to vote on the bill before the end of the week, something the chair, Sen. Molly Baumgardner, wouldn’t promise.
“I want to see all kids involved in extracurricular because we find that they’re more successful, have more friends in any type of extracurricular activity,” she said. “Right now in the state of Kansas our biggest issue is to get our middle school and high school kids in school. So that’s going to be my top priority.”
Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, said she hoped the NCAA and Kansas High School Sports and Activities Association would weigh in on the issue.
The bill is the latest in a series of anti-LGBTQ bills filed in the state since 2016, according to Equality Kansas. Most of them, targeted children. Thomas Witt, the organization’s executive director, called it “legislative bullying.”
Kansas is one of more than 20 states considering legislation that seeks to exclude transgender youth from school athletics.
House and Senate Republicans introduced legislation earlier this year making it illegal for doctors to provide certain care to transgender children.
Last month, Sen. Roger Marshall said during the confirmation hearing for education secretary Miguel Cardona that he didn’t “think it’s American that a genotypical male, a person with a Y chromosome, is competing against girls.”
Whether the bill discussed Tuesday passes or not, Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Wichita Democrat and the state’s first transgender lawmaker, said the hearing itself puts young transgender kids at risk.
“When this makes the news tonight the parents who know their kids are trans are going to be playing catch,” Byers said. “Most parents don’t know their kids are trans until that kid is willing to come up and say something. And those kids are going to be hearing all this stuff in silence and quiet, in their room.”
“Do they have the resources to reach out and say I need help so I don’t jump off this planet.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 4:29 PM.
