The Kansas Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college. The override comes just a day after lawmaker passed a wide-reaching bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed bans on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.
The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that lawmakers across the U.S. The measure approved by Kansas lawmakers Tuesday not only would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities but also bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. Kelly is expected to veto it.
Supporters say such laws will keep competition fair. Track and field last month barred transgender athletes from international competition, adopting the same rules that swimming did last year.
They’re also making sure cisgendered girls and women don’t lose the scholarships and other opportunities that didn’t exist for them decades ago.
LGBT-rights advocates acknowledge that arguments about competition resonate because of the longstanding assumption that men and boys are naturally stronger than women and girls.
They’re also frustrated that the debate often focuses on whether transgender athletes have or can win championships.
The Kansas measure bans transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ teams starting in kindergarten, even though sports and other extra-curricular activities aren’t overseen by the Kansas State High School Activities Association until the seventh grade.
The state association said three transgender girls competed in sports in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors.