TOPEKA, Kan. – Republican proposals rejecting transgender rights are advanced Thursday in the GOP-controlled Kansas legislature.
The measure that will most likely eventually become law this year would ban transgender athletes from K-12 girls and women, club and college sports.
The House passed it, 82-40, sending it to the Senate.
The two Republicans absent Thursday likely would have voted yes to give supporters the two-thirds majority of the 84 votes needed to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto. You vetoed two previous proposals.
The Senate voted 26 to 11 to pass a bill aimed at preventing doctors from providing gender-affirming care to minors.
The bill says the state medical board must revoke the Kansas licenses of doctors found to be providing such care. Also, they could be sued by former patients.
Senators also voted 26-10 to pass a bill that would legally define a person as male or female based on their birth anatomy.
The measure would prevent transgender men and women from changing their birth certificates and driver’s licenses after transitioning, and could force them to use restrooms and other facilities associated with their gender assigned at birth.
Both Senate bills went to the House, and both were just one vote shy of a two-thirds majority.
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