On Wednesday, Kansas Republicans finally passed an aggressive ban on transgender people participating in youth and girls’ and women’s college sports. This law could lead to state-mandated genital inspections for some athletes.
After Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly veto proposals in 2021 and 2022Republicans finally got enough support to pass legislation called “Fairness in Women’s Sports”.
The new law bans girls and trans women from playing sports in school starting in kindergarten. The Kansas State High School Activities Association said only three trans girls participate in school sports this year. The new law does not ban trans boys from playing sports and will take effect on July 1.
Advocates have questioned how schools should determine the gender a child is assigned at birth, but the hearing for the bill in FebruaryRep. State Barb Wasinger, who sponsored the bill, said enforcement would be done through “physical exercise.”
Wasinger told The Kansas City Star Thursday: “Right now, you have to provide a birth certificate for school. And if you play sports, you have to have a sports physical for school, so I think that will take care of that.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said in a statement to the outlet that there is “absolutely no language” in the points of the Bill to rule out surveillance.
“There is absolutely no language or intent in the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act that requires any kind of gender screening, and that will not be the result of this bill,” Hawkins said.
But no language appears in the bill to back up that statement.
Not only is the idea of children having to show their genitals to adults before they are allowed to exercise appalling parents across the country, but the hypocrisy of the GOP is even more visible because of Republicans across the country. falsely accused transgender people and allies who are sexually predatory.
Wasinger has not responded to HuffPost’s request for comment.
After the vote to override, state Rep. Heather Meyer, who has a trans child, stood to reveal a T-shirt with the words “Protect Trans Kids” emblazoned across the front. “All I see is people saying they hate my son. They hate other kids just like my son,” Meyer said, the Kansas City Star reported Wednesday. “It just confused me, and I was upset. But I will continue to fight.”
Some parents in Kansas are considering moving out of the state. “It’s a scary time to be raising a trans kid in Kansas,” Cat Poland, a parent of a transgender child, told the PBS NewsHour. “We may be facing a real threat if we have to move, and that’s exciting.”
The new legislation is part of a larger sweeping pattern of extreme anti-trans bills making their way through the GOP-controlled legislature. In recent years, the Republican Party has made transphobia and other attacks on the LGBTQ+ community a cornerstone of its political ideology.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills now suspended nationwide.
Last month, Kentucky passed an anti-trans bill into law prohibits gender-affirming treatment for small children and will forced detransition of transgender children. In Arkansas, the GOP pushed the bill toward making it easier to sue doctors which provides healthcare services to trans children. In Idaho, it provides gender-affirming care to transgender youth to be a crime starting next year.
Kansas Republicans have has passed another anti-trans bill. SB 180 would prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity and prohibit trans people from changing their gender on their driver’s licenses. The governor is expected to veto it, but the GOP likely has the numbers to override it.