TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) 鈥� Conservative Kansas legislators are pushing back more aggressively this year on LGBTQ-rights issues than in the past two years, with proposals to ban for trangender youth and restrict how public schools discuss sexual orientation and gender identity.
Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday outlined an agenda for the year that includes culture war issues pursued by Republicans in other states, including a ban on transgender athletes in girls' and women's K-12, club and college sports. Their broader agenda on LGBTQ-rights issues this year in Kansas also comes after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in November despite GOP attacks over of two bills restricting transgender athletes.
On LGBTQ-rights issues, the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature focused in 2021 and 2022 on trangender athletes. Lawmakers haven't considered a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth or bills to restrict which bathrooms transgender people can use. Proposals on what schools teach on history and sexuality have not gone as far as a Florida law derided by critics as a policy.
State Rep. Heather Meyer, a bisexual Kansas City-area Democrat with a transgender son, said this year, for GOP lawmakers, 鈥淚t sounds like that the bigots are the priority, not our children.鈥�
鈥淭hey want to make it so that it鈥檚 like we never existed, so like the LGBTQ community is invisible,鈥� she said.
Top Republican lawmakers pledged to keep pushing for a laws restricting transgender athletes. Eighteen states have such laws, including Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the nonprofit, pro-LGBTQ-rights Movement Advancement Project think tank.
Supporters of such laws argue that they preserve fairness in competition and college scholarship opportunities for what they call 鈥渂iological鈥� women.
As Kelly ran for reelection, her campaign said she believes decisions about transgender athletes should be made by schools, doctors, families and local officials. That statement came that, 鈥淥f course men should not play girls鈥� sports. OK, we all agree there."
Two of the Legislature's most conservative Republicans, state Sens. Mark Steffen, from south-central Kansas, and Mike Thompson, from the Kansas City area, introduced that would make it illegal to perform gender-affirming surgery or provide hormone therapy or puberty-blocking medications to anyone under 21. Doctors would face having their medical licenses suspended or revoked for 鈥減rofessional incompetency.鈥�
Arkansas bans such care for minors; Alabama makes it a felony, and Arizona bans gender-affirming surgery for minors. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott treating gender-affirming care as child abuse. Proposals have been introduced in at least 10 other states.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of trying to protect these children from what could be life-altering and irreversible types of medical and chemical procedures,鈥� Thompson told reporters after his bill was introduced.
It's not clear how much support the measure has, and a hearing has yet to be scheduled. Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, expressed a willingness to consider the idea.
But Kelly is certain to be a big obstacle to such a policy. Asked about the proposal, Kelly told reporters Tuesday, 鈥淵ou can just imagine what I think of that.鈥�
State Rep. Brandon Woodard, a gay Kansas City-area Democrat, called the measure 鈥渁 garbage bill.鈥�
鈥淕ender-affirming care is live-saving and this bill is dangerous, hateful and will lead to death by suicide,鈥� he said.
During a Statehouse news conference for introducing GOP leaders' agenda, Masterson decried what he called a 鈥渟exualized, woke agenda" in public schools. Later, he told reporters that he wants to pursue a law that would spell out limits on what schools can teach or discuss about sexuality issues by grade level.
Masterson said he's worried about schools focusing on people's 鈥渋nnate characteristics鈥� and 鈥渄ividing us up into different groups.鈥�
鈥淲e've gotten completely away from, basically, fundamental academics,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it's not helping our children.鈥�
But state Rep. Susan Ruiz, a lesbian Kansas City-area Democrat, said the 鈥渞adical right鈥� is creating the problems.
鈥淭hese are just kids who are trying to understand themselves,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are coming after children who are vulnerable.鈥�
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John Hanna, The Associated Press
