transgender

The Missouri Senate is advancing a pair of bills banning transgender athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity, and transgender minors from health care that affirms their gender identity. Plus: Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas talks about the possibility of a downtown baseball stadium and a park above I-670.

The Missouri Senate gave first-round approval to a pair of bills early Tuesday morning targeting transgender minors and athletes. It needs another vote in the Senate before moving on to the Missouri House.

The legislation, which includes blocking transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming health care like hormones or puberty blockers, has been held up with a filibuster over several days. Another bill would bar transgender athletes in schools from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.

Elevated Access recruits hobby pilots to fly abortion patients out of states with bans. They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of abortion rights groups in a post-Roe America.

The emergency regulations will require healthcare providers to tell patients about what Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey claims are health risks of gender affirming care — even though the treatments have been endorsed by dozens of leading U.S. medical groups. The rules will also prohibit providers from administering care to children with untreated mental health problems.

Missouri Senators left for spring break a day early because of a Democratic filibuster on legislation that would bar transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming health care. That bill is expected to be debated this week.

Gov. Laura Kelly rejecting the bill sets up a showdown with the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature. The original vote on the bill fell two votes shy of a veto-proof majority.

The bill would require students in Kansas to be assigned to male and female sports teams based on biological evidence at birth, including a person’s genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive potential. Among 41,000 girls competing in Kansas high school athletic events, only three are known to be transgender.

Sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, the legislation would block certain gender-affirming health care services, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for transgender Missourians under the age of 18. Democratic lawmakers filibustered the bill for two days, before the Senate adjourned early for spring break.

Supporters say what they've dubbed a "women’s bill of rights" would protect cisgender women. Critics say it’s a political attack on transgender women.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office and state health offices are investigating allegations of misconduct at the Washington University Transgender Center. Former patients say that treatments were only undertaken after long consultations with doctors and mental health professionals.

The bills would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming care to children, ban transgender girls from girls' sports and legally define sex as the sex a person is assigned at birth.