SKIP TO CONTENT Account SUBSCRIBER EDITION Part of the McClatchy Media Network Friday, January 12, 2024 Today's eEdition 18°F 35° 18° Local News Restaurants Chiefs Politics Opinion • Personal Finance Betting Obituaries Entertainment Shopping GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Kansas Republicans will likely seek restrictions on health care for transgender minors BY KATIE BERNARD JANUARY 05, 2024 5:00 AM Kansans rally in support of transgender rights May 5, 2023, at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. SHERMAN SMITH Kansas Reflector TOPEKA Kansas Republicans expect to pursue restrictions on hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery for minors when the Legislature returns to Topeka on Monday, sparking fear among transgender residents about the year ahead. The effort marks a continuation of last year’s onslaught of legislation restricting LGBTQ rights in Kansas and GOP-controlled states across the country. The bills sought to regulate the lives of trans people, blocking or limiting access to health care and public accommodations while dictating the treatment of trans students in schools. In Kansas, the Legislature barred trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports and became the first in the nation to define gender based upon sex at birth. The athletics bill took effect in August, while parts of the gender-definition law remain tied up in court. Over the summer a Shawnee County district court judge ordered Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration to stop allowing Kansans to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses. A court hearing is scheduled to determine the fate of the drivers’ license policy next week. But LGBTQ Kansans are already bracing for their next fight as lawmakers return to Topeka. “They’re still sending the signal that they wanted to send last year that trans Kansans are not welcome and so we just have to keep fighting,” said Iridescent Riffel, a trans woman living in Lawrence. The intense legislative focus on trans residents, Riffel said, wears down on the community and places them at added risk of violence. Riffel referred to the recent killing of a trans activist in Maryland. A murder charge has been filed in the death. “That type of hate is normalized and perpetuated by continually debating trans people’s existence,” she said. After failing to overturn Kelly’s veto of legislation banning hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgeries for minors in 2023, top Republican lawmakers say they intend to return to the topic this year. “We’re trying to see if there isn’t a path forward,” said Rep. Brenda Landwehr a Wichita Republican and chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee. Landwehr voted against the bill last year, saying the proposal wasn’t vetted enough before being brought to a vote. “I do have concerns with doing things to minors that could have long-term effects on them, but I wanted to get more educated about what this process is.” Landwehr said she was still studying exactly how a bill should look. She said she wants to closely examine existing regulations surrounding the care. A staunch opponent of abortion, she expressed concern that Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions and other reproductive care, was among the providers of care for trans Kansans. Brittany Jones, a lobbyist for the conservative Christian advocacy group Kansas Family Voice, said her organization plans to support a bill similar to what Kelly vetoed. The proposal threatened the licenses of medical professionals who provided the care and opened the door for lawsuits against those providers. After speaking with lawmakers in the House all summer, Jones said she believes a veto-override on the policy is more likely. “It’s not an attack on anybody. It’s just giving kids time,” she said. Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, voiced hope that election year dynamics would cause lawmakers to stray away from an intense focus on social issues that may not prove popular in a general election. But if they don’t, Jae Moyer, a nonbinary Kansan and LGBTQ activist based in Johnson County, expects voters to punish lawmakers who chose to focus on anti-LGBTQ bills. “I would just hope that everybody understands that this is an election and they do only have a very narrow supermajority,” Moyer said. “If lawmakers want to focus on those issues then hopefully the voters are watching.” Republicans hold narrow supermajorities in both chambers. If Democrats pick up three seats in the Senate and two seats in the House they will break the supermajority. Proponents of restrictions say they’re working to protect children from making a life-changing decision when they are too young to fully process its consequences. “There are still deep concerns among constituents that have reached out to me,” said Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Eudora Republican and chair of the Senate Public Health Committee. Gender reassignment surgery is relatively rare among minors and the legislation lawmakers considered last year would have also banned hormone therapy and puberty blockers, which are often reversible. Advocates of the care say it is essential for the well-being of young trans people trying to live authentically. Bans in other states have caused some families with trans children to move. D.C. Heigert, an attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, said a ban on gender-affirming care would prove especially damaging as the trans community in Kansas is already suffering from the effects of restrictions passed last year. “It means that the Legislature – that doesn’t have any insight into what a trans Kansan’s day-to-day life is – may be taking away life-saving health care for them,” Heigert said. LGBTQ activists in Kansas say they believe they are more prepared to combat harmful policies this year than last year. They also hope to advocate for policies to protect LGBTQ Kansans from discrimination. “It is gonna be the defensive but at the same time that we’re taking defensive we’re also out in the field educating people that they don’t have to vote for this kind of stuff,” said Thomas Alonzo, chairman of Equality Kansas, the state’s leading LGBTQ rights organization. Over the summer Equality Kansas worked to educate Kansans about gender non-conforming identities and organize throughout the state. Riffel called this sort of education essential. “Right now we have a Legislature that is giving into misinformation and to lies specifically about the trans community,” Riffel said. “I’m hoping they can find it in their hearts to hold onto something better.” RELATED STORIES FROM KANSAS CITY STAR GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Kansas police seize property without criminal charges, but lawmakers want more safeguards JANUARY 02, 2024 5:00 AM GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Kansas GOP lawmakers sue to overturn failure of constitutional convention resolutions JANUARY 03, 2024 5:00 AM KATIE BERNARD (816)234-4167 Katie Bernard covers Kansas politics and government for the Kansas City Star. She joined the paper in 2019 and became the Topeka Statehouse correspondent in 2020. Katie was part of the team that won the Headliner award for political coverage in 2023. Take Us With You Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. 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