KS bills ban gender-affirming care and bar trans women from female designated spaces

Day after day this week LGBTQ advocates will flood the Kansas statehouse, passionately arguing against bills targeting the rights of transgender Kansans.

They’ll be met with similar fervor from advocates of the policies arguing the legislation, which restricts healthcare and access for transgender Kansans, is necessary to protect women and children.

The scene will mirror what has played out in Kansas and neighboring states in recent years but with an expanded scope.

As GOP-led Legislatures nationwide pursue anti-LGBTQ legislation Kansas Republicans have narrowed in on healthcare and rights for transgender individuals advocating for bills that ban gender-affirming care for children and young adults, bar transgender athletes from girls sports and prevent transgender women from accessing female designated spaces in publicly funded areas.

Three of those bills will receive hearings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

“It’s this systematic erasure of trans folks,” said Stephanie Byers, a former Kansas state representative who was the first transgender person to serve in the Legislature. She compares the current attack on trans rights to civil rights debates and the fight for same-sex marriage in prior decades.

“As we have seen our nation become accepting of gay marriage and we see the doors open for acceptance of the transgender community this is a knee jerk reaction,” said Byers, a Democrat who represented Wichita.

Even as LGBTQ rights advocates criticize the push as overtly discriminatory, Republican lawmakers argue the legislation is aimed at protecting women and children.

“Trans women are not women,” said Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Eudora Republican who chairs the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

“Trans women can think they’re a woman and that’s fine,” she added in a recent interview. “They should not be allowed into women’s spaces.”

Gossage will preside over hearings in two bills. A bill criminalizing gender-affirming care for children and young adults under the age of 21 and a bill proponents refer to as the “Women’s Bill of Rights.”

The proposed Women’s Bill of Rights defines woman in state statute as only a person identified as female at birth and man as only a person identified as male at birth. It bars any state funded agency from identifying anyone in data as something other than their sex assigned at birth and mandates that any spaces designated for just men or women in statute are only available to those assigned to that sex at birth.

The legislation is a near exact model of a policy pushed at the federal level by the right-wing Independent Women’s Voice.

State Rep. Heather Meyer, an Overland Park Democrat who has a transgender son, said the proposed legislation would “erase and endanger” transgender kids.

“There is a clear concerted effort by the GOP to continue their war against our country’s most vulnerable children,” Meyer said in a text message. “None of these bills will protect our children from harm.”

The effort in Kansas pales in comparison to neighboring states — the ACLU has identified six anti-LGBTQ bills in Kansas, 28 in Missouri and 32 in Oklahoma.

In addition to the three bills earning hearings next week, bills have been filed in Kansas to criminalize drag performances in front of children, ban public funding of drag and require parental consent for teachers to call students by pronouns they were not assigned at birth.

‘Obligation to protect women’

Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican, introduced the “women’s bill of rights” last week. She said her goal was to “prevent chaos in terms of our social institutions.”

“When we can’t define what a woman is and we have an obligation to protect women and girls then we need a concrete, clear definition of what a woman is,” Erickson said.

Sen. Pat Pettey, a Kansas City Democrat and ranking Democrat on the Public Health and Welfare Committee, called the bill an example of “extreme ideology of unacceptance.”

“I don’t think anyone comes lightly to making some sort of choice about their not naturally born gender identifications,” she said. “I think people just want to live a natural life and be accepted within their community.”

The same committee was scheduled to hear testimony Tuesday on a bill aimed at banning gender-affirming care for all Kansans under the age of 21. It was introduced by Shawnee Republican Sen. Mike Thompson and Hutchinson Republican Sen. Mark Steffen.

Doctors who provide such care would face criminal penalties. Separate legislation creates a path for lawsuits against doctors who provide that care if a patient regrets it later in life.

Monday morning, after this story published, the committee’s schedule changed to replace Thompson and Steffen’s bill with a hearing on a bill that does not criminalize gender-affirming care but allow for medical providers to be sued and have their licenses revoked if they provide it.

In an interview last month, Thompson said his goal in criminalizing care was to keep young people in Kansas from making irreversible mistakes.

But the bills fly in the face of recommendations from medical associations across the United States including the American Academy of Pediatrics which recommends youth have access to age appropriate gender-affirming care.

They also impact reversible procedures including puberty blockers.

“It’s just kind of a transphobic attack,” said Taryn Jones, vice chair and lobbyist for Equality Kansas. “Children aren’t getting surgeries … the only people even getting hormones are children who are in their late teens.”

“This is a chance for children to not have to have to go through puberty under the wrong gender.”

The Kansas bills comes amid wider scrutiny of gender-affirming care in the region.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey last week announced an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital based on allegations from a former employee. Bailey on Friday sent letters to the hospital and university calling for a moratorium on the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments as he conducts his investigation.

“We are hopeful that the leaders of these institutions will choose to do the right thing for the safety of Missouri’s children, as we work to root out any possibility of children being harmed by predatory adults with a radical social agenda,” Bailey, a Republican who took office in January, said Friday.

‘We’ve defeated these every time’

The Kansas legislation also follows a campaign cycle in which Republicans focused heavily on the gender identity debate.

Republican nominee Derek Schmidt, at the time Kansas attorney general, ran ads in his failed campaign for governor focused on his promise to sign legislation barring transgender athletes from girls sports. He featured former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines who competed against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the NCAA.

In the last weeks of the cycle, Schmidt’s campaign capitalized on quickly debunked reports that Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration had funded drag shows open to children.

Though Schmidt narrowly lost, those points of his campaign have remained relevant in Kansas GOP politics.

Legislative leaders have set a priority on banning transgender athletes from girls sports – in an interview last month Senate President Ty Masterson said he hoped Kelly would sign the bill in a show of bipartisanship. Masterson has framed the bill as a common sense measure to protect fair competition while opponents have said it unfairly bars transgender students from school activities.

In 2021 and 2022, the Legislature passed bills on the topic but both times they were unable to override a veto from Kelly.

In her campaign Kelly cut an ad saying she opposed men playing girls sports but later clarified that she was referring to adult men playing in children’s sports, which does not happen.

In a statement Friday Kelly’s office declined to comment on specific legislation but said Kelly “will avoid unnecessary divisiveness and will prioritize Kansas’ ability to attract and retain businesses.”

It is possible this year Republicans could have an easier time gaining the supermajority to overcome the veto. The Senate has successfully voted to override the veto in the past and the House’s majority became more conservative in November.

Erickson, who championed the bill in previous years, said she was confident about its chances. Despite prior losses, Erickson said the bill remained a priority.

“We don’t want any girl to be denied her opportunity,” Erickson said.

Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat and Kansas’ first openly gay member of the Legislature, said he expected a repeat of previous years in what he referred to as “hate week in the Kansas Legislature.”

“We’ve defeated these every time they’ve popped up and we’re going to do so again,” Woodard said.

“It’s frustrating that leadership in both chambers has pushed for spending time and energy throughout next week, when we’re ahead of deadlines, on bills they know full well will not become law.”

This story was updated to reflect that the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee updated its schedule, following initial publication.