Kansas legislature bans transgender athletes from women’s sports, overriding veto
Brady Knox
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The Kansas legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D-KS) veto and banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
HB 2238 is a win for Republicans, who have been trying to get the measure through since 2021. They were previously unable to overcome Kelly’s veto, according to the Kansas City Star.
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The Republican-dominated chambers of government voted overwhelmingly to override the governor’s veto this time around — the House voted 84 to 40, and the Senate voted 28 to 12.
While Democrats decried the bill as discriminating against and hurting transgender people, Republicans and conservatives hailed it as a necessary and commonsense piece of legislation that served as a victory for fairness.
“Common sense has finally prevailed in Kansas. One would think it would be uncontroversial to limit girls’ sports to girls, and, indeed, numerous polls have shown most Americans agree,” Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project, said to the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“Gov. Kelly has repeatedly vetoed this legislation, showing she cares more about placating her party’s far-left activist base than safeguarding her state’s female athletes,” Schilling added.
“Fortunately, Kansas legislators are not so craven. We applaud the state House and Senate for voting this measure into law despite the governor’s absurd opposition, and we hope this move will spur even more states, and eventually Congress, to take action as well,” he continued.
“It’s huge for women of the state, it’s huge for their opportunities, it’s huge for just our understanding of women’s place in society,” Brittany Jones, a lobbyist for Kansas Family Voice which is affiliated with the national Family Policy Alliance, told the Kansas City Star. “It’s something that women have fought for since the ’60s, and we are building on the hard work of so many women for decades.”
Democrats sang a different tune.
Democratic state Rep. Susan Ruiz, the first openly lesbian women elected to the state legislature, claimed that the bill would cause transgender people to kill themselves.
“This is an attempt to erase them out of our society. These kids are killing themselves; they’re taking their own lives,” she said. Following the vote, she stood and screamed across the chamber at Republicans, “You don’t give a s*** about children!”
Democratic state Rep. Heather Meyer, who was sporting a “PROTECT TRANS YOUTH” T-shirt, claimed tearfully on the House floor that she was up late the night before with her frightened transgender child.
“All I’m seeing is people saying they hate my child. They hate other kids like my child. They hate children, and they’re not really fighting for them,” she said.
Kelly herself bemoaned the vote, saying it “breaks my heart.”
In a letter explaining her veto, Kelly claimed that it would harm the mental health of children, harm businesses, reduce job growth, and turn people away from wanting to raise a family in the state.
Not all Democrats were unhappy with the vote, however, with at least one joining Republicans. Democratic state Rep. Marvin Robinson switched his vote, saying it was partially due to vitriolic attacks from Democrats.
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“It was all or none,” Robinson told the Kansas City Star. “Then they started getting really rude and insulting and attacking and threatened to take me out and, my God, what do you do.”
The bill comes just a day after the legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban transgender people from using the bathroom opposite of their biological sex.