TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas lawmakers voted Tuesday to send to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk a bill that would ban transgender and nonbinary people from single-sex spaces inconsistent with their sex at birth.
Kansas is the first state to pass the wide-ranging legislation that restricts transgender people’s access to public accommodations, which goes beyond the bathroom and sports bans enacted in other states. The bill was crafted by the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative organization that has pushed for the legislation nationwide.
The state Senate voted 28-12 Tuesday morning to accept House amendments to the bill after the House approved the policy 83-41 last week.
The amendments sought to address concerns about intersex Kansans by saying those individuals were entitled to accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a change some intersex advocates have called insulting.
The vote likely sets up a veto fight with the Democratic governor who has consistently decried GOP efforts in Kansas and nationwide targeting transgender people. Kelly already vetoed a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports last month.
Speaking to reporters last week, Kelly said she had not yet seen the bill, which supporters named the “women’s bill of rights.” But she indicated she was unlikely to sign the bill.
“I’ve always been consistently in favor of policy that is inclusive and that protects the rights of all Kansans,” Kelly said.
The “women’s bill of rights” establishes definitions for woman and man in state law based solely upon reproductive capability. It then imposes those definitions on any single-sex spaces run by government entities.
The Senate achieved a veto-proof majority on the bill along party lines with one Republican voting no. The House missed last week by just one vote — though a conservative Republican likely to vote yes was absent from the chamber. In the House, two Democrats voted yes with Republicans while three Republicans voted “no.”
Daphne Cornelius, a Wichita transgender woman who has already received extensive transition treatment, said she has “mini panic attacks” when she has to enter a public restroom and was once stopped by a security guard when leaving the female restroom and questioned about her gender identity.
Cornelius worries the passage of bill could limit her ability to access public spaces without gender neutral bathrooms due to fears of harassment and assault.
But proponents of the bill say it is necessary to protect women.
“This legislation is essential in ensuring that decades of progress made by the Women’s Rights Movement is not hijacked and in order to protect the rights, safety, dignity and equal opportunity of biological women in our state,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita, House Majority Leader Chris Croft of Overland Park and Speaker Pro Tem Blake Carpenter of Derby said in a statement after the House vote last week.
The bill is part of a wave of anti-transgender legislation pushed by Kansas Republicans including efforts to restrict transition surgery and hormones for youth and separate students on school overnight trips by sex assigned at birth.
Nationwide 449 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, according to a tracker from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cornelius, the Wichita transgender woman, said the bill could prevent transgender people from changing their gender on public documents, which she said could increase housing and employment discrimination — both of which Cornelius has experienced.
“The transgender community won’t be able to afford to live or be themselves here in Kansas,” she said. “Without meaningful employment, we won’t have money to pay our bills.”
Brittany Jones, a lobbyist for Kansas Family Voice, a conservative Christian group affiliated with the national Family Policy Alliance, said she will work to override a veto expected from Kelly.
“Once again, Gov. Kelly refuses to stand up for women: their rights, their spaces or their opportunities,” Jones said.
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