‘An attack:’ Kansas lawmakers advance ban on gender affirming care for trans minors

Kansas Republicans advanced a sweeping bill Tuesday banning hormone therapy and gender transition surgeries in minors, the latest in a multi-year effort on the right to regulate the lives of transgender Kansans.

The House preliminary approved the ban on a voice vote despite warnings from transgender Kansans that it will deny needed care and threaten the well-being of vulnerable trans youth.

Lawmakers will take a final vote on the bill Wednesday. It will then move to the Senate.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has already indicated she will veto the bill if it reaches her desk.

“I think you can look back in history and see how I’ve responded in the past and I really haven’t changed my position,” Kelly said last week when asked about the bill. Kelly vetoed a similar proposal last year and lawmakers were unable to override her.

Ongoing effort

The Kansas bill is the latest in a string of proposals in Kansas and other red states nationwide targeting transgender rights.

Last year Missouri blocked transgender minors from accessing hormone therapy and transition surgery, referred to by medical groups as gender affirming care. In Kansas, lawmakers blocked transgender athletes from competing in girls and womens sports and defined man and woman in state law by sex assigned at birth.

The focus on the rights of LGBGQ Americans continued this year. The American Civil LIberties Union reported that 478 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in statehouses across the country this year. Twenty-two states have banned gender affirming care for youth including Kansas’ neighboring states Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Jaelynn Abegg, a transgender woman from Wichita who is running for the state Legislature, called the string of legislation disheartening.

“Worst of all, I fear it will lead to transgender youth to suicide,” she said.

As lawmakers entered the House chamber Tuesday advocates held signs urging them to vote no.

Elise Flatland, a Kansas mother of two transgender children was among them. She worried about her children’s safety if the bill passed, arguing receiving gender affirming care changed their lives for the better.

“It’s an attack. My government is telling me that I’m abusing my children,” Flatland said. “And that’s scary. That’s really scary when all I’m doing is giving them life-saving medical care that their doctors have prescribed.”

Proponents of the bill have said children and teens are too young to make decisions about medical transition and should wait to make those choices until adulthood. They argue the risk for regret is too great and that youth with gender dysphoria need mental health care rather than medical intervention.

“There’s no reason to continue these transgender treatments on children because the risk of severe side effects and long term effects such as infertility are serious,” said Rep. Ron Bryce, a Coffeyville Republican and physician licensed in Texas.

Rep. Bill Clifford, a Garden City Republican and physician, said he did not believe gender affirming care had been sufficiently studied.

“We do treat children differently,” he said.

However, a review of studies from the Associated Press found the regret rate for medical transition in the U.S. and Canada is just 1%. Major American medical associations advocate against restrictions on hormone therapy and transition surgeries for minors. The American Academy of Pediatrics contends youth should have access to “developmentally appropriate” gender affirming care.

“You’re asking mental health professionals, medical professionals to ignore this really small segment of the population and not provide treatment for them. That is unethical,” said Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Lenexa Democrat.

Broad impacts

Kansas’ bill threatens the medical licenses of providers who offer gender affirming care to minors and allows for lawsuits against those practitioners for 10 years after their patient turns 18.

It also blocks the use of any state funds or resources for gender transition, including social transitioning that involves no medical interventions. It prohibits state employees who work with children from “promoting the use of social transition.”

Rep. Heather Meyer, an Overland Park Democrat and mother to a trans child, said the wording was so broad it may bar a state social worker from using a child’s preferred pronouns.

“It could do harm to the providers who regularly work with children suffering from gender dysphoria questioning their sexuality and their gender identity,” Meyer, who is a social worker, said. Most gender affirming care, Meyer said, is focused on talk therapy. That care, she said, could be limited by the bill.

“This bill specifically discriminates against and stigmatizes individuals you may not necessarily understand.”

Rep. David Buehler, a Lansing Republican, said that minors are blocked from voting and buying alcohol.

“This bill does not target or discriminate against people with gender dysphoria,” he said. “This bill allows kids to physically mature and reach the age of majority when they can make these types of decisions for themselves as a mature adult.”

If the bill becomes law it is likely to face a legal challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas has said the policy violates Kansans constitutional rights.

“This bill sets a terrifying precedent by taking away parents’ rights to make decisions about their children’s medical care, and violates Kansans’ constitutional right to personal autonomy—a right the Kansas Supreme Court said includes the ability to control one’s own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination,” D.C. Hiegert, an ACLU attorney who is transgender, said in a statement last week.