News & Commentary

Puberty blockers, mastectomies, surgeries that remove “any body part or tissue” and prescribing estrogen to males or testosterone to females to treat gender dysphoria could be essentially unavailable in Kansas to people under 18 due to a bill in the Statehouse would cost doctors their licenses.

The past two years have been the deadliest for transgender people in recent history, in large part due to the rapidly increasing number of legislative attacks against trans peoples’ rights and the resurgence of demeaning and harmful anti-trans rhetoric in our communities. Kansas is no exception.

Organization wants to eliminate fees for children and legalize medical marijuana

On Thursday May 12th, the ACLU of Kansas submitted opposition testimony to proposed changes to K.A.R. 28-17-20, an administrative policy which relates to the process for making changes to birth certificates.

Great news!After organizations from across the state came together to oppose SB 175, Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick announced yesterday that he does not plan to debate the bill, a bill that would force universities to use public funding to support discriminatory student organizations.The ACLU of Kansas, Equality of Kansas, National Organization for Women, Americans United, Mainstream Coalition, as well as student voices and faith leaders from across Kansas proved that this discrimination is not acceptable for the state of Kansas.Thank you for your support on this issue! Your voice matters.

The ACLU of Kansas promises to push forward on Kansas marriage lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court takes cases.Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said nothing would likely change while the nation’s highest court considers several marriage-related cases. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it had decided to take cases related to state same-sex marriage bans. The court will likely issue a ruling this spring.“We are certainly going to continue to press forward to try to get final judgments in our case,” Bonney said.Read the entire article on the Topeka Capital-Journal from January 16, 2015.

Remarks at the Equality Kansas rally by ACLU of Kansas executive Director Gary Brunk."The road our nation has traveled in the quest to expand liberties has never been straight or easy.  The Declaration of Independence boldly asserted that all men are created equal, but the Constitution condoned slavery.  As historian Garry Wills convincingly argues, at Gettysburg President Lincoln had to leapfrog back over the Constitution to the Declaration to restore the centrality of the idea “that all men are created equal.”  Even then, it was many decades after Gettysburg before we began making real progress in the struggle for equality for African-Americans, just as it took decades before we made real progress in the struggle for equality for women.   Today we can acknowledge that the fulfillment of rights of Africa-Americans and women has improved, but we still have a long way to go before we are near the end of the road to equality.And so it is for other groups marginalized and discriminated against in our society.  In the last few years our country has taken astonishing steps towards equality for LGBT people.  I am proud to say that the ACLU has played a critical role in that progress, including our historic victory in convincing the Supreme Court  that the Defense of Marriage Act violated equal protection by denying married gay couples recognition under federal law.We have made progress, but much remains to be done. Hardly anywhere is that as true as in our own state, where under the guise of religious liberty some legislators want to legalize discrimination against LGBT couples.But this fight in Kansas is not about religious liberty, it’s about giving persons with certain convictions the right to impose their views on others.  This is, pure and simple, an attempt to institutionalize the tyranny of a set of ideas that increasingly most Americans reject.Today, as civil libertarians, as people who are religious, as people who are not religious but care about working to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence, we are called on

Under the guise of “religious freedom,” Kansas House Bill 2453 would allow discrimination against LGBT people.  The opposition to the bill has been tremendous, coming from not only advocates and citizens who believe in equality, but also from concerned business leaders.  While the legislation seems derailed for the time being, the ACLU will be watching closely for attempts to revive it. 

The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri is proud to launch the 4th Edition of the Kansas/Missouri LGBT Rights Handbook. The primary purpose of the handbook is simply to provide information.  Through the process of writing and updating it, we realize that, while progress is being made a great deal of work lies ahead.  The ACLU will continue participating in this crucial struggle to secure the civil rights and civil liberties of the LGBT community.4th Edition LGBT Handbook