News & Commentary

The ACLU of Kansas represents several transgender Kansans as intervenors in the case. The transgender Kansans also do not object to Kobach dropping the case, ACLU attorney Monica Bennett said in a Feb. 24 filing.

Opponents, including the ACLU of Kansas, say bathroom bans are rooted in misinformation and do not improve safety.

Outside the chamber, advocacy groups including the ACLU of Kansas and Equality Kansas condemned the override, arguing the statute invites government overreach and targets an already marginalized community.

“This discriminatory bill undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of ACLU of Kansas.

“Bathroom bans are grounded in prejudice and misinformation,” said Logan Demond, ACLU of Kansas policy director, in a previous statement. “And they don’t actually make anyone safer.”

“The original bill (HB 2426) required the state of Kansas to invalidate legally issued birth certificates and driver’s licenses to depict strictly someone’s sex assigned at birth,” a presser from the ACLU of Kansas reads.

The ACLU of Kansas also criticized the bill’s passage. “Bathroom bans are grounded in prejudice and misinformation,” said Logan Demond, ACLU of Kansas policy director in a statement on the organization’s website. “And they don’t actually make anyone safer.”

Logan Demond, ACLU of Kansas policy director, posted a statement to the organization’s website that said, “Bathroom bans are grounded in prejudice and misinformation and they don’t actually make anyone safer.”

Micah Kubic, ACLU of Kansas Executive Director, said in part in a statement on the group’s website: “This bill undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution. It subjects people to unacceptable privacy violations and puts them in harm’s way. Discriminatory laws like this bill violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the state constitution. They contradict what it means to be a Kansan.”