Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed four bills Thursday that would have regulated the lives of transgender Kansans, dictating what spaces they are welcome in and the health care they can access.
The Democratic governor brought her veto count for the year to 10 in a resounding rejection of a string of legislation that has represented an aggressive effort by the GOP-controlled Legislature to limit the rights of transgender Kansans.
This establishes yet another set of veto fights weeks after lawmakers overrode her on a bill barring transgender athletes from girls and women sports.
“Companies have made it clear that they are not interested in doing business with states that discriminate against workers and their families,” Kelly said in a message to lawmakers. “By stripping away rights from Kansans and opening the state up to expensive and unnecessary lawsuits, these bills would hurt our ability to continue breaking economic records and landing new business deals.”
The bills Kelly vetoed included the “women’s bill of rights,” which would have banned transgender and nonbinary Kansans from single-sex spaces that do not match their sex assigned at birth, a bill that would have blocked Kansas physicians and other licensed medical professionals from providing hormone therapy or gender transition surgery to minors, a bill that would have required students on overnight field trips to be separated by sex assigned at birth and a bill that would have required county prisons to separate prisoners based upon sex assigned at birth.
GOP lawmakers have focused on trans rights for years in Kansas. Since 2021, leadership in the House and Senate prioritized banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports. But this session brought a renewed onslaught with the Legislature sending more bills impacting the lives of transgender Kansans to Kelly than ever before.
Adam Kellogg, a University of Kansas student who is transgender, said Kelly’s support of trans Kansans is essential. He said the Democratic governor is operating as the primary barrier between the state and policies he considers fascist.
“I’m concerned that this will continue to come up for the next couple of years and this will continue to be an issue that the right wing coalition pushes on moderate, liberal-leaning people,” Kellogg said.
“This has nothing to do with anyone’s safety besides trans people. We are actively in danger.”
Conservative proponents of the bills argue they’re necessary to protect women from being forced to share spaces with someone who was assigned male at birth and to protect children from making medical decisions related to gender identity they may come to regret.
The Kansas push comes amid a national wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in GOP-controlled states. As of Thursday, 467 bills had been filed across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Missouri Republicans have been especially aggressive, with lawmakers advancing a sports ban and state Attorney General Andrew Bailey rolling out regulations that will sharply restrict gender-affirming care for both adults and children.
Republicans vow to override
Earlier this month, lawmakers successfully overrode Kelly’s veto on the transgender athletes bill. In statements House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, pledged to override Kelly’s veto of the “women’s bill of rights” and criticized her vetoes of the other three policies.
“Governor Kelly has chosen to side with left-wing activists who seek to change the definition of a woman and ignore the biological differences that exist between the sexes,” Hawkins said. “Ignoring these differences is reckless and exposes females to specific forms of violence, including sexual violence, and compromises the safety of female-only spaces such as restrooms, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and prisons.”
Chances for override in the GOP-dominated chamber will be mixed.
The bills requiring students on field trips and inmates in county prisons to be separated based on sex assigned at birth were each combined with non-controversial policies involving schools and jails. Both bills were approved with veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.
The bill banning medical professionals from providing gender affirming care — including hormone therapy and gender transition surgery — to minors fell far below the needed veto-proof majority in both chambers. The Senate fell four votes short, while the House missed by 14 votes. Numerous Republicans in the House, including high-powered committee chairs, crossed party lines to vote against the bill which would have stripped medical professionals of their licenses and allowed for lawsuits.
But the “women’s bill of rights,” which would bar Kansans from entering publicly operated single-sex spaces that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth, appears to have the support needed to override a veto.
The Kansas Senate approved the bill at the beginning of the month with 28 votes, a veto-proof majority. The House missed by one vote, but a Republican who has supported similar policies was absent from the chamber.
Rep. Marvin Robinson, a Kansas City Democrat who voted to override Kelly’s veto on the sports bill, voted in favor of the bill. Tom Alonzo, chair of Equality Kansas, said advocates had chosen to stop lobbying Robinson to change his mind and instead focus on other lawmakers. Rep. Ford Carr, a Wichita Democrat, also voted in favor of the bill.
If Republicans successfully override Kelly, Kansas will become the first state in the country to enact the wide-ranging legislation that was written and promoted by the Independent Women’s Forum. Lawmakers in Oklahoma have considered the bill but have not yet sent it to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk.
Transgender Kansans and advocates for the LGBTQ community have warned the bill would effectively erase transgender people from public life in Kansas by forcing them to exist in spaces that do not match their gender identity.
“The intent is obviously there to suppress trans people and trans voices but I don’t think they fully understand the implications of what they’re doing with that bill,” Taryn Jones, a lobbyist for Equality Kansas, said of lawmakers who supported the bill.
The bill defines in state law what a man is and what a woman is based solely upon reproductive abilities; the bill then applies those definitions wherever single-sex spaces are established in Kansas laws or regulations. Advocates have said this is necessary to protect spaces created for women including locker rooms, bathrooms and domestic violence shelters.
“In order to protect women’s rights and opportunities, the word 'woman' has to have a known legal meaning. This is a simple bill that ensures that courts know what a woman is. The Legislature should work together to give courts this needed clarity,” Brittany Jones, a lobbyist for the conservative christian group Kansas Family Voice, said in a statement.
According to Kelly’s office the bill would have wide ranging impacts on state agencies that run programs specific to women or girls but do not currently verify the reproductive capabilities of beneficiaries. That includes grants Kelly’s office provides to domestic violence and sexual assault centers, the Commerce department’s grant program for minority and women businesses, the Department of Wildlife and Park’s Kansas Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program.
Additionally, the office said, the state could lose federal dollars if the bill is passed by failing to comply with Biden administration guidance requiring the state to adopt policies that support affirming the gender identity of children in childcare and accommodate gender identity in state hospitals. Kansas organizations that support domestic violence survivors could also lose federal grants that come with a non-discrimination requirement.
The Star’s Jenna Barackman and Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
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