Transgender Kansans could soon face financial and criminal penalties for using bathrooms that match their gender identity.
After six hours of tense debate, overwhelming Republican majorities in the state Legislature voted on Wednesday to pass a bill that mandates restroom use in government buildings based on one’s sex assigned at birth.
The policy won support from more than two-thirds of the state House and Senate — enough to override a likely veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and pass the bill into law.
The bill requires government entities, including public schools and universities, to segregate restrooms and locker rooms by sex. Individuals could be fined $1,000 and criminally charged for repeatedly using facilities that do not match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Supporters said the bill serves to protect Kansans in private areas.
“Women and girls should not compromise their privacy, safety and dignity in the most intimate spaces to accommodate men,” said Republican Rep. Susan Humphries, who chairs the committee in which the bill was introduced.
Democratic lawmakers rejected that argument.
“What this bill is about is about sending a very clear message to people who are transgender that you are not welcome and you are not safe here,” said Democratic Rep. Abi Boatman, a transgender woman who filled a vacancy in the House earlier this month.
“I have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society,” she said. “I hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.”
Twenty states have passed laws that prohibit individuals from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in certain public spaces.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates slammed the Kansas bill. Melissa Stiehler, advocacy director of the nonprofit Loud Light Civic Action, called the bill a “weapon.”
“It’s been used to exploit women’s rights in order to ignore real cases of sexual violence,” she said in a statement. “(The bill’s) clear purpose is to eradicate transgender people from legal recognition and from public life.”
'Gut and go'
Critics also pointed out that lawmakers brought the bathroom provisions to vote in a manner that prevented members of the public from commenting.
The bill was introduced at the outset of the legislative session in a different form. The original proposal banned transgender Kansans from changing the gender marker on their state-issued driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach lobbied for that policy this session after he lost a protracted legal bid to bar gender marker changes based on existing law. Last fall, following a court ruling, the Kansas Department of Revenue ended a two-year pause on the practice.
Lawmakers heard testimony from proponents and opponents of the provisions pertaining to government IDs, which remained in the bill that passed on Wednesday.
But Republican legislative leaders used a maneuver known as “gut and go,” in which the contents of one bill are cut-and-pasted into another, to add the bathroom portion — without an opportunity for public comment.
Democratic House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard said that move blocked members of the public from weighing in.
“Kansans, whether you agree with them or disagree with them on this issue, deserve to be heard,” he said.
Humphries said the process was aboveboard.
“Procedurally it was permissible to add it in, and that really just seemed like the best way to do it,” she said in an interview on Thursday.
Humphries said lawmakers had plenty of opportunity to discuss policies surrounding bathroom use during Wednesday’s marathon floor debate.
Republican Rep. Bob Lewis, who introduced the bathroom amendment to the original bill, said constituents had time to email and call their lawmakers to voice their opinion on the issue before it came to a vote.
“So, in that way, they were heard,” he said in an interview. “I really don't think that having a hearing on my portion would have brought any more information to bear on the decision.”
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
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