Kansas has become the latest state to pass a law restricting the rights of transgender athletes. The law bans transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college. It also prevents transgender people from using public restrooms and locker rooms associated with their gender identities and bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. The law will take effect on July 1, 2023.
The Kansas law is part of a broader wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation pursued by Republican lawmakers across the country. Supporters of the ban argue that it keeps competition fair, while opponents argue that it is discriminatory and harmful to the mental health of trans children. LGBTQ-rights advocates say it is part of a national campaign by right-wing traditionalists to erase transgender, non-binary, gender-queer, and gender-fluid people from American society.
The Kansas ban demonstrates the clout of religious conservatives, who believe that God created man and woman and oppose any cultural shift towards acceptance. The ban is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the country have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. In Kansas, lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and restrict restroom use.
The law passed despite the opposition of Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat who has vetoed similar bills in the past. Supporters of the ban overrode her veto with exactly the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers of the Kansas Legislature. Democratic lawmakers who oppose the ban have vowed to fight back, saying that it is discriminatory and will harm the mental health of trans children.
The ban has sparked anger and fear among LGBTQ people in Kansas. “It’s a scary time to be raising a trans child in Kansas,” said Cat Poland, a mother of three who coordinates a Gay-Straight Alliance at her 13-year-old trans son’s school. “We may face the very real threat of having to move, and it’s heartbreaking.”
The Kansas ban on transgender athletes is part of a broader trend of discrimination against LGBTQ people in the United States. It remains to be seen whether the ban will be challenged in court, but opponents of the law have vowed to fight for trans rights and push back against discriminatory legislation.