What's Happening in Kansas - Major Legislation updates as of April 21, 2023

Passed bills:

HB 2238--the sports ban. This was passed, the Governor vetoed it, and the legislature overrode the veto, so it becomes law. The next step is litigation and to try to stop it through the courts. The good news is West Virginia has been successful in getting the Supreme Court to uphold the pause on implimentation while they make their way through litigation, so their sports ban on trans girls in girls sports won't take effect while it is tried in the courts. So that is the hope right now. 

The rest of the bills have been passed but are awaiting an expected Governor's veto: 

SB 180--the "Women's Bill of Rights," a bill that would define women as biological females, men as biological males, mothers as female parents, fathers as male parents, separate as not necessarily unequal in the case of sex segregation, it would force trans folks to use the bathroom, jail, domestic violence shelter or rape crisis center sex segregated space of their gender assigned at birth, and it would only allow for gathering of vital statistis on crime, victimization, and discrimination using Female and Male, meaning they are setting up structurally our experience of more hate violence and harassment and the conditions by which that injustice can't be recorded or intelligible to the state. 

SB 26--formerly SB233, was amended at 2:30 am with a partial gut and go add that added the gender affirming care ban for minors and then passed literally in the dead of night (so the legislation hasn't been updated online yet, but when it is it can be found here). This bill bans surgeries, hormones, and hormone blockers to minors, allows minors to sue the doctors or surgeons in civil court, and allows the board of healing arts to remove doctor's licenses. It does have the phrasing that might allow for parents or others to be targeted for allowing to be performed, but that is no longer linked to felony charges, so it is still a question about how much it will impact therapists, parents, and others that support a child's gender affirming care. 

HB 2138--legislates overnight trips. Requires schools seperate and house students on overnight trips based on biological sex, causing trans students to be housed based on their biological sex. And if a school violates this rule, the school can be permanently closed.  

SB 228--covers county jails. Requires separate housing/rooms based on sex. But the note about male and female has been removed, so there is more room for interpretation now, but with SB 180, it is still going to force trans folks into carceral housing based on biology rather than gender.