Dem Kansas Governor Vetoes Poorly Written, Very Bad Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill
Unfortunately the Republican-controlled legislature has enough votes to override it, but this at least gives us some hope.
Last month, the Kansas state legislature passed a particularly insidious bathroom bill barring trans people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or other single-sex “multiple-occupancy private spaces” that don’t align with the gender they were assigned at birth, in public buildings owned or leased by the government, such as “public universities, schools, libraries, courthouses and city halls.” The bill also would invalidate birth certificates and driver’s licenses that have been changed to reflect a person’s actual gender identity.
On Friday, however, the state’s Democratic governor Laura Kelly vetoed the legislation, as she is apparently less afraid to cross the transphobes than is California governor Gavin Newsom.
Governor Kelly, who has consistently vetoed anti-trans legislation in her state, issued a statement, pointing out the various absurdities that would result from this attempt to keep transgender people from peeing, and highlighting what an awful job legislators did writing the damn bill:
“This poorly drafted bill will have numerous and significant consequences far beyond the intent to limit the right for trans people to use the appropriate bathroom.
“Under this bill:
“If your grandfather is in a nursing home in a shared room, as a granddaughter, you would not be able to visit him.
“If your wife is in a shared hospital room, as a husband, you would not be able to visit her.
“If your sister is living in a dorm at K-State, as a brother, you would not be able to visit her in her room.
“If you feel you have to accompany your nine-year-old daughter to the restroom at a sporting event, as a father, you would have to either enter the women’s restroom with her or let her use the restroom alone.
“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.
“Therefore, under Article 2, Section 14(a) of the Constitution, I hereby veto House Substitute for Senate Bill 244.”
Well, that does sound very stupid, and the legislature likely knew how stupid it was, as it did everything it could to avoid putting the bill through a public comment period, during which people might bring things like that up.
Rather than starting from scratch, the legislature chose to do a “gut and go” on a bill originally meant to regulate bail bonds that had already made it through, and which had nothing at all to do with transgender people or bathrooms. In essence, this means they jam the contents of a different bill into a bill that’s already cleared procedural hurdles and public scrutiny, in order to bypass all that for the new legislation they’re shoehorning in.
Clearly, they didn’t think it would actually go over well, and it hasn’t.
Hell, Stephanie Sharp, a Republican former member of the Kansas House, put out an op-ed in the Kansas City Star speaking out against it.
Supporters of the bill want Kansans to believe this is about protecting women, but let’s be honest: this isn’t about protecting women. It’s about policing people. S.B. 244 isn’t aimed at everyday Kansans doing everyday things. It’s aimed at Kansans who look different from what the Legislature deems acceptable.
The bill is, to some degree, modeled after the anti-abortion bills that have passed in some states that allow people to collect a bounty by reporting their neighbors’ abortions. It would allow people who spend way the hell too much time staring at strangers in the bathroom to collect $1,000 bounties if they suspect that they have, god forbid, shared a bathroom with a trans person.
Additionally, it states that “any governmental entity that violates this section is liable for a civil penalty of $25,000 for the first violation and $125,000 for each subsequent violation.” In many cases, this means the fine would be paid for by taxpayers.
As usual, however, it’s not entirely clear how the hell this bill would be enforced. Do they want to have someone standing outside of the bathroom checking people’s IDs and/or genitalia? And even if that is the case, how will they know if someone has had gender-affirming surgery? Would these genital inspectors have to be experts of some kind? Will they have to take some kind of special course in genital identification? Does such a course even exist? Will the people who are supposedly so worried about maybe, accidentally, being in a bathroom stall next to a trans person find that to be less of a violation somehow?
So far, even Florida has only arrested one person for using a bathroom inconsistent with the gender they were assigned at birth — a trans woman who literally wrote multiple letters to legislators informing them of her intent to do so.
We all know these laws are ridiculous and that the folks who keep trying to push them would not, in fact, breathe some sigh of relief upon seeing a trans man walk into the ladies room instead of the men’s. Because, ultimately, this is not about bathrooms. It’s not about safety. This is about these people not wanting trans people to exist, period, which is why, for the most part, there are no mechanisms to actually enforce these laws. The goal is to make it as uncomfortable for people to be themselves as possible, to make it clear that they want them to feel unwelcome, so that they will just stay closeted.
Unfortunately, Kelly’s veto may be for naught. The Republicans have a supermajority in the state Senate and House, and have enough votes to override it. The bill passed with two-thirds support of the Senate, and as long as they don’t lose too many votes, they’ll still be able to pass it. Although maybe they will lose those votes. Maybe they can’t be moved by basic human decency, but they might have some reservations about those unintended consequences they clearly didn’t think through all that well.
In related news, the Idaho House just overwhelmingly passed its own anti-trans bathroom bounty bill, this one very poorly written by the Idaho Family Policy Center. In case you weren’t sure if this was a coordinated crusade.
[House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 / Kelly statement / Kansas Reflector / Kansas City Star]
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Lesbians and non-binary people are also targets in this. It is truly about forcing people into a mold of what these bigots consider "normal." I have been called sir many times in the past so you see how that might cause a problem when I go into a women's restroom (I never had a problem in a bathroom fortunately!) You need to be in a properly identifying costume or how else can they tell if you are male or female?! For some reason that is super important to them.
A majority of cis women feel safer with a trans woman in the bathroom than a cis gender man in a public setting.