As veto override looms, Kansas advocates fear anti-trans bill bans social transitioning

Advocates for transgender people fear that a bill to ban gender-affirming care for youths would also effectively ban social transitioning.

As the Republican-led Legislature reconvened for veto session on Thursday, advocates held a Statehouse news conference addressing concerns with Senate Bill 233. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, but Republican lawmakers appear to have the supermajorities necessary to override her.

Most of the discourse over SB 233 has focused on its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youths, including hormone therapy and surgery.

But vague wording in other provisions restrict government employees, which could include teachers and social workers, from promoting social transitioning.

"Social transitioning includes things like using a different name, using different pronouns or changing the way you dress," said Isaac Johnson, a social work intern in Topeka Public Schools. "The exact consequences of SB 233 are unclear, as it provides no real definition on who is a employee, or what counts as promoting or advocating for social transition. I am frightened of what this bill could mean for both Kansas children and those of us who serve them."

He fears that SB 233, if it becomes law, "could criminalize any affirming interaction I have with a child who expresses curiosity or confusion about their gender," such as using their preferred name and pronouns.

Teachers and social workers say they don't indoctrinate kids to be LGBTQ

Johnson started identifying as trans a month before his 15th birthday

"Then I had to hide for a very long time because I was in an environment that wasn't safe," he said. "I couldn't tell people about it. I was in a lot of mental agony. ... When I finally started taking testosterone — at this point in time I was 23 years old — my mental health problems, they just disappeared. I felt so much better."

He said hiding being trans didn't change that he was trans.

"There's no one causing kids to be trans," Johnson said. "Kids just are what they are."

As a social worker, he said, "It is not my job nor my place to tell the students I work with if they are or are not transgender and what they should do about it. I am simply there to listen to them and help them process their emotions in a healthy, productive way."

Emerson Hoffzales, an English teacher in Lawrence, said educators and social workers aren't encouraging children to identify as LGBTQ.

"I'm not here to indoctrinate, that's not my job," they said. "But also, the joke that you hear is if I'm going to indoctrinate them, I want to have them bring their pencils to class, turn in assignments, read the chapter of whatever novel we're reading that week.

Parent says professionals should be able to work with children

Rev. Annie Ricker is a pastor of two United Methodist churches in the Topeka area and the board chair of Kansas Interfaith Action. She is also the parent of a 12-year-old daughter attending Shawnee Heights Middle School who questions her gender identity.

"Educators and medical personnel who work with kids like my daughter need to be able to provide the encouragement and affirmation that all our students need," Ricker said, "not only for things like gender or sexuality, but because kids who are figuring out who they are need encouragement and affirmation and a safe environment in which to figure those things out."

Ricker also worries that her daughter's school's gay-straight alliance group could be forced underground because it could no longer have a teacher sponsoring it.

Hoffzales said the bill "potentially threatens the very educators who care for these students day in and day out by scaring them out of the profession."

Social worker thinks bill will 'do more harm than good'

While Johnson said people have called him "mutilated" and "disgusting," he said "I'm so happy, I love being trans, I am not ashamed of myself."

He added that he understands the fear that people may have.

"I get it, it's scary, it's a lot of change," Johnson said. "But I don't think a bill that says you can't talk about it with your teachers is going to help anyone. It'll do more harm than good."

Johnson said he has worked with children who are exploring their gender identity but ultimately realize they aren't trans after talking about it or trying out social transitioning.

"It's kind of ironic that they're trying to push for this ban on social transitioning," Johnson said, "because letting kids socially transition is the first step to letting them explore whether that's right or not for them. I've had kids who said, 'I'm going to go by this name and pronoun,' they do for a bit, and they say, 'Actually, that's not for me.'"

Johnson said he is motivated by his own experiences.

"The difference in my quality of life before and after I transitioned is night and day," he said. "Having to keep my transness a secret made me feel incredibly alienated, lonely and unsafe. When I came out, the weight of the world fell off my shoulders. Being able to both socially and medically transition made me far happier, more stable, more outgoing and more confident."

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas bill to ban gender-affirming care may ban social transitioning