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Kansas House Rejects Move to Create LGBT State Employee Protections

The Kansas House has rejected an effort to create discrimination protections for LGBT state workers. As KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports, Governor Sam Brownback eliminated some protections offered to those employees last month.

 


(SCRIPT)
Governor Brownback overturned an executive order that protected state employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. He said no Kansas governor should be creating protections. He said they should be created by lawmakers.

Democratic Representative John Carmichael tried to make that change during debate on a bill. He offered a proposal to put those protections into state law.

“Up on the wall, we have the names of famous Kansans who brought this state into the nation as a free state, a state that has never stood for discrimination,” says Carmichael.

But others in the chamber objected, saying the proposal was too different from the underlying bill regarding state employment. The full chamber eventually agreed. A majority of House members voted to say the amendment was not relevant to the underlying bill.

Stephen Koranda is KPR's Statehouse reporter.