Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a GOP-led bill on Friday that bans transgender people from using restrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identity.
The bill passed with support from more than two-thirds of the Republican-dominated state House and Senate, meaning supporters have a good chance of overriding Kelly’s veto and forcing the bill into law.
In a statement, Kelly said the legislation was "poorly drafted," leaving room for unintended consequences far beyond bathroom use.
"I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans," she said.
Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins shot back in a statement of his own.
"Instead of standing with the overwhelming majority of Kansans on this issue, the Governor chose to appease her most radical supporters at the cost of women and girls in our state," he said.
The bill requires government buildings, including public schools and universities, to “take every reasonable step” to segregate restrooms and locker rooms by sex.
Individuals could be fined or sued for $1,000 and criminally charged for repeatedly being accused of using facilities that don’t match the sex they were assigned at birth.
In an interview after the bill passed, Republican Rep. Bob Lewis, who amended it to add the bathroom provisions, said it was a common-sense measure.
“It just codifies social norms,” he said. “When people go into bathrooms or locker rooms, there's just an expectation that it'll be single-sex.”
Twenty states have passed laws that prohibit individuals from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in certain public spaces.
Another part of the bill enacts a longstanding goal of Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach’s: banning Kansans from changing the gender marker on their state-issued driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
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.
Republican state Rep. Susan Humphries, who chairs the committee in which the bill was introduced, said lawmakers had plenty of time to consider the policy during the six-hour floor debate before it passed.
Humphries said the proposed law would serve to protect women and set uniform standards for public buildings to follow.
“School administrators want clarity on how they're supposed to handle these things. And we're going to give them clarity on that,” she said.
City and county officials told the Kansas Reflector that the bathroom policy does not clarify procedures for how local governments should enforce restroom use based on sex assigned at birth.
They also said the law could result in significant costs for local governments faced with changing signage and, in some cases, building infrastructure.
There are some exceptions. Children would be allowed in opposite-sex restrooms up to the age of eight, as long as a caregiver is with them. Coaches would be allowed in opposite-sex locker rooms as long as everyone is clothed.
The so-called “bathroom bill” is the latest in a yearslong drumbeat of Republican-led legislation affecting transgender and gender nonconforming Kansans.
Last year, the state Legislature overrode a veto to pass a law banning gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, for transgender Kansans under 18. A legal challenge to that law is pending in state court.
Democratic Rep. Abi Boatman, a transgender woman who filled a vacancy in the House earlier this month, said during the floor debate in January that the bill is more about attacking transgender Kansans’ freedoms than protecting women in private spaces.
“Am I afforded all of the rights and responsibilities of an elected official,” she said, “or do I need to just go waste my time at facilities asking where I'm allowed to take a dump?”
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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