Topeka, Kansas – Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, sued both houses of the Kansas legislature for passing a slate of bills anti-LGBTQ+ targeting both transgender youth and adults in the state. The bills passed concurrently today — HB 2238, SB 180 and SB 233 — are the first anti-LGBTQ+ bills to advance by both houses of the state legislature this year. Together, they represent an unreasonable and targeted attack on transgenders and non-binary Kansans to prevent them from simply living as their authentic selves for no reason other than discrimination. The bills passed today, which will each go to a second vote in their respective houses next week, include:
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HB 2238, which prohibits transgender students at all levels of play from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity,
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SB 180, which suggests a counterfactual, unscientific definition of sex designed explicitly to exclude transgender people in all Kansas law, including athletics, restrooms, correctional facilities, domestic violence centers, schools, and more. , AND
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SB 233, prohibiting physicians from providing age-appropriate, best-practice health care to transgender youth (allowing cisgender youth to continue to receive similar treatment).
The above legislation is the result of continued far-right pressure on lawmakers, led by political extremists and disinformation campaigns on social media and other platforms. These are just a few of hundreds of bills pushed by national anti-LGBTQ+ organizations in dozens of states.
In response, Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior adviser to HRC released the following statement:
