Story at a glance
- Senators in Kansas this week advanced legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people in school sports and education.
- One of the bills aims to separate school sports teams by “biological sex,” or a student’s sex assigned at birth. The other would allow parents to petition for the removal of books or learning materials that are not consistent with their “firmly held beliefs, values or principles.”
- LGBTQ+ advocates have called these bills “regressive” and claim they are an attempt to exclude and erase LGBTQ+ people.
Senators in Kansas this week approved two bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, with one seeking to prevent transgender girls from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity through the university level, and the other aiming to give parents the ability to challenge classroom lesson plans or materials if they encroach on “the parent’s firmly held beliefs, values or principles.”
Both bills are now set to go before the state House of Representatives, though a hearing date has not yet been set.
Under the first bill, public school sports teams from the elementary to the university level would be designated by “biological sex,” or a student’s sex assigned at birth.
“Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex,” a portion of the bill, which seeks to create the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” reads.
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A similar bill arguing that there are “inherent differences between men and women” was passed by the Kansas Senate last week. According to the bill, those differences “remain cause for celebration, but not for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.”
In this case, “inherent differences” range from chromosomal and hormonal differences to physiological differences like “denser, stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments” and stronger hearts and lungs for men compared to women.
The argument has been popular among those who say transgender women and girls are edging cisgender women and girls out of competitive athletic opportunities, though some have taken it a step further, asserting that trans women are “replacing” cisgender women in spaces like the workplace.
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley called the Kansas bills “regressive” and accused lawmakers of demonizing trans issues to ignite their base and score political points.
“There’s a reason Governor Kelly vetoed this same legislation last year: it is a crass political ploy by lawmakers looking to satisfy national anti-LGBTQ+ forces at the expense of the well-being of Kansas’s transgender youth,” she said.
A second bill passed by Kansas senators this week would establish a “Parental Bill of Rights” that would grant parents the ability to review and object to curriculum materials used in their child’s classroom. Parents would also have the right to challenge any book or resource available to students in school libraries and petition for its removal.
Specifically, the bill would enable parents to take action if learning materials “impair the parent’s firmly held beliefs, values or principles,” which LGBTQ+ advocates say could target topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.
“This bill is a harmful attempt to exclude certain communities from school curriculums and erase core parts of our history,” Human Rights Campaign Legal Director Sarah Warbelow said in a statement. “Young adults deserve an education that reflects our diverse society and enables them to learn from the mistakes of our country’s past to help create a better future.”
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