Topeka
Legislation banning transgender people from K-12 girls’ and college women’s sports is headed to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk.
After the Republican-backed bill stalled out in the Kansas House last month, lawmakers revived it in the final days of the legislative session, using procedural maneuvers to push it to passage in less than 36 hours.
In heated and emotional debates on back-to-back days, the Senate approved the measure on a 26 to 11 vote Friday afternoon, and the House approved it 76 to 43 just before midnight Thursday.
Neither chamber reached a veto proof majority, making the prospect slim that the bill will become law if Kelly, a Democrat, disapproves.
Kelly has not said where she stands on the policy, but Kelly has a long history of supporting LGBTQ rights. Her first act as governor was restoring workplace protections for LGBTQ state workers that had been rescinded under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
The fight over transgender rights has come to the forefront of culture wars in statehouses nationwide. Similar bills are being pursued in more than 20 states.
The South Dakota Legislature passed a similar sports restriction last month, but it was vetoed by the state’s Republican governor. The Arkansas General Assembly passed a sports ban, which was signed into law, and also overrode the GOP governor’s veto of an additional bill that bans hormone therapy and other treatments for people under the age of 18.
Through hours of debate Thursday and Friday in Topeka, opponents told stories of LGBTQ youth while pointing to the potential economic cost of lawsuits, lost athletic tournaments and young people and businesses fleeing the state.
Sen. Ethan Corson, a Johnson County Democrat, quoted an email he received from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce in opposition to the debate. He also said young Kansans are against the policy.
“When it comes to voting on this issue I’m going to be on the side of the future of Kansas, I’m going to be on the side of the young people of Kansas who we desperately want to keep and make homes in this state,” Corson said.
But proponents of the bill said participation of transgender people created unfair competition and that protecting opportunities for women in sports was worth any economic cost.
“My family knows personally the great opportunities that Kansas high school sports create for young ladies,” said Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican. “Those opportunities are not for sale. Not to the NCAA, not to the chamber (of commerce) of anywhere. They are priceless.”
If signed by the governor, the legislation is nearly certain to result in lawsuits against the state.
President Joe Biden issued guidance to federal agencies saying discrimination against LGBTQ people violates Title IX — the federal prohibition on discrimination based on sex.
The ACLU of Kansas has pledged to sue, prompting a legal process that the Kansas attorney general has predicted would be drawn out and costly.
Advocates for the bill have said they welcome those lawsuits and believe the law would be upheld, claiming it fosters women’s protection under Title IX.
“The longstanding legal understanding of Title IX and sex discrimination require that we protect Kansas girls from attacks from administrations and sports associations who do not have girls’ best interest at heart,” Brittany Jones, director of advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance, said Friday after the vote.
Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Wichita Democrat and the state’s first transgender lawmaker, said proponents of the bill are telling transgender children they are not welcome.
“There have been too many vigils for trans kids who have taken their own lives,” Byers said at the end of the House debate Thursday.
Since the bill was introduced in February, Byers and other advocates have said it would result in the ostracizing, bullying and possible suicide of transgender students.
“When you’re talking about grade school and middle school, which this bill goes after, what you’re really just talking about is participation,” said Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, the state’s leading LGBTQ rights organization.
“This is one more bill in Kansas and around the country attacking trans kids and frankly these people need to pick on someone their own size,” Witt said. “The state of Kansas Legislature has just said to these kids, we want you to go away. That certainly can’t be a good thing to hear from their elected leaders.”
Transgender students are already bullied and marginalized at many schools around the state said Liz Hamor, the founder and director of the Kansas chapter of GLSEN, a national organization that advocates for LGBTQ youth.
“The week that it was introduced already our trans students sense of safety in the state was rocked a little bit,” Hamor said. “The hostility for the trans youth, it’s as much as I’ve ever seen it in the last seven year.”
During a floor debate Thursday, Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, suggested transgender students’ struggles were a result of confusion and Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican, cited the Bible saying God created men and women.
“You see the increasing incidents of suicides among young people because they’re confused,” Thompson said. “They’re being taught a completely different biology than there is in nature.”
Sen. Tom Hawk, a Manhattan Democrat, quickly responded to Thompson’s statements with a letter from another legislator he did not name.
“I know a lot of you want the world to be simple but it’s not,” he read.
Advocates of the bill, however, have said transgender women and girls have a physical advantage in girls’ sports, so others could not fairly compete.
“We also have to be fair to all students in a school setting. That’s what this bill does,” Erickson said Thursday.
“I’m sure there will be lawsuits, and it’ll be from girls who lost their opportunity to fairly participate in women’s sports.”
The legislation passed in the Senate on a 24-10 vote last month, but it was not brought up for a hearing or vote in the House.
In a conference committee Thursday morning, Republican lawmakers revived the measure.
“I want my daughters to be able to compete fairly,” Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said during the meeting.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, has co-sponsored federal legislation that would enact national restrictions on transgender students’ participation in women’s sports. Marshall applauded the passage of the legislation on the state level, saying Friday that he considers it “un-American to allow biological boys to compete against biological girls when it comes to athletics.”
Missouri’s version of the legislation was headed to the House floor after clearing a second committee on Thursday. Currently, the Missouri State High School Activities Association currently allows transgender boys undergoing testosterone treatment to compete on boys’ teams, and transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams after documenting one year of treatments that suppress testosterone.
If passed by the General Assembly, a constitutional amendment requiring students to play sports on teams based on their sex assigned at birth would go to a statewide vote — a proposal that has alarmed activists.
The Star’s Jeanne Kuang and Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 09, 2021 1:19 PM.
