Kansas Bans Transgender Athletes from Women's and Girls' Sports
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.
The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill that applies a ban to school teams and club sports, and came a day after lawmaker passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed such bans on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.
The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. Kansas lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and keep transgender people from using restrooms in line with their gender identities.
The measure approved by lawmakers Tuesday not only would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities but also bar them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. It is among the most sweeping proposals of its kind in the nation, and Kelly is expected to veto it.
“It’s a scary time to be raising a trans child in Kansas,” said Cat Poland, a lifelong Kansas resident and mother of three who coordinates a Gay-Straight Alliance at her 13-year-old trans son’s school in a small town about 40 miles northwest of Wichita. “We may face the very real threat of having to move, and it’s heartbreaking.
The ban demonstrates the continued clout of religious conservatives nationally, reflected in a statement in the 2022 platform of the Kansas Republican Party: “We believe God created man and woman.” The measures also reflect many Republicans’ beliefs that their constituents don’t like the shift toward acceptance in American culture.
“I wish it was 1960, and, you know, little Johnny’s a boy and Mary’s a girl, and that’s how it is, period,” Republican state Rep. John Eplee, a 70-year-old doctor, said during a committee discussion of a bathroom bill this month. “It’s not that way at all anymore, and it’s getting a little more confusing all the time.”
LGBTQ-rights advocates says its part of a national campaign from rightwing traditionalists to erase transgender, non-binary, gender-queer and gender-fluid people from American society.
Alex Poland, an eighth-grade cross-country runner who hopes to play baseball next year, said he thinks legislators are pursuing “bills against children” who “haven’t done anything to harm anyone” because they don’t know many trans people.
Alex, who went with his mother to lobby for trans rights at the Statehouse last week, said it’s important for trans kids to be allowed to play on teams associated with their gender identities.
“It’s good for their mental health, and usually in my experience, most of the kids don’t care and don’t say anything,” Alex said, adding that it’s mostly adults who “care so much about what the trans kids are doing.”
The first state law on transgender athletes, in Idaho in 2020, came after conservatives retrenched from the national backlash over a short-lived 2016 bathroom law in North Carolina. In Kansas, conservatives’ biggest obstacle has been Kelly, who narrowly won reelection last year after pitching herself as a political centrist.
Conservative Republicans in Kansas fell short of the two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers needed to override Kelly’s vetoes of the transgender athlete bills in 2021 and 2022. But this year, the House voted 84-40 to override her veto, exactly what supporters needed. The vote was 28-12 in the Senate, one more than a two-thirds majority.
Last year’s elections were crucial to the result. In the historic western Kansas cowboy town of Dodge City, Jason Goetz, who works for a home construction company with a Christian cross in its logo, unseated an incumbent in the GOP primary who voted against overriding Kelly’s veto in 2022.
In announcing his candidacy in June 2022, Goetz said his mission was “to bring a biblical worldview” to the Kansas House. Six days later, he posted: “PROTECT GIRLS SPORTS!”
“It was a pretty clear-cut issue in the community,” Goetz said last month after the House initially approved the bill, adding that it’s a priority among his constituents.
Also crucial was a Democratic legislator’s decision not to seek reelection last year. Freshman Rep. Marvin Robinson replaced a fellow Kansas City Democrat who voted against overriding Kelly’s veto last year. Robinson initially voted against the bill last month but voted Wednesday to override Kelly’s veto.
Across the U.S., supporters of such bans argue that they keep competition fair. Track and field last month barred transgender athletes from international competition, adopting the same rules that swimming did last year.
Supporters argue that they’re also making sure cisgendered girls and women don’t lose the scholarships and other opportunities that didn’t exist for them decades ago.
“Over the past 50 years, females have finally been able to celebrate our differences and create a division that enabled us to achieve athletic endeavors similar to our male counterparts,” Caroline Bruce McAndrew, a former Olympic swimmer and member from the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from Wichita, testified to lawmakers.
LGBTQ-rights advocates acknowledge that arguments about competition resonate outside Republicans’ conservative base because of the longstanding assumption that men and boys are naturally stronger than women and girls.
They’re also frustrated that the debate often focuses on whether transgender athletes have or can win championships.
Hudson Taylor, a three-time All-American collegiate wrestler said youth sports should be about learning discipline and other “healthy habits,” as well as having fun and getting support from friends. He founded and leads the pro-LGBTQ group Athlete Ally.
“There’s been a professionalization of youth sports over the last 40 years,” Taylor said. “So often, the legislators and people who oppose trans-athlete inclusion really go directly to the most elite, top talent, Olympic-hopeful athletes.”
The Kansas measure bans transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ teams starting in kindergarten, even though sports and other extra-curricular activities aren’t overseen by the Kansas State High School Activities Association until the seventh grade.
That’s one reason LGBTQ-rights advocates are skeptical that the true issue is fair competition. Another is the scarcity of transgender female athletes.
The state association said three transgender girls competed in sports in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors.
During a recent Zoom news conference, Taylor said transgender athletes in college likely number only between 100 and 500, based on how few children overall keep competing in high school and college. The NCAA says about 219,000 women play collegiate sports.
The international ban from track and field doesn’t actually affect a single transgender female athlete.
Cathryn Oakley, senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, said when a state enacts a law against transgender athletes and there’s no backlash, lawmakers feel they have permission to pursue “even more outrageous” proposals.
Cat Poland, the Kansas mother with a trans son, said: “They just keep taking the next, the next step, the next step, until where are trans people supposed to go? Where can they can exist to be safe and live happy and fulfilling lives?”
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Police Officers, Drug Suspects Wounded in Kansas Shootout
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Multiple police officers and suspects were shot Wednesday in a gun battle during an undercover fentanyl trafficking investigation in Kansas City, Kansas, authorities said. All were expected to survive. Police Chief Karl Oakman said three officers were wounded along with three or four targets of the sting. Undercover investigators had previously bought fentanyl from the suspects and were trying to make another purchase Wednesday, according to Oakman. But it fell through, and a shootout erupted between the heavily armed suspects and the agents.
The three officers who were shot had arrived in marked police cars to help their undercover colleagues, Oakman said. Police believe all the suspects are in custody. The chief said police have been investigating a fentanyl influx into the city for months, but the operation that resulted in the shootout began a few days ago.
Dr. Sean Kumer, associate chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said the officers were brought to the hospital and all of the shooting patients the facility treated were in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening. They were able to converse with their doctors.
City police asked their counterparts in neighboring Kansas City, Missouri, to investigate the shootings.
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Missouri Tornado Kills Multiple People, Sows Destruction
GLEN ALLEN, Mo. (AP) — A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least five people and causing widespread destruction as a broad swath of the Midwest and South kept a wary eye out for further storms that could spawn additional twisters and hail.
Wednesday's severe weather was the third in a series of massive storms over the last two weeks that have spawned dozens of tornadoes, mainly in the South and Midwest, killing at least 63 people. Just last weekend, confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country.
The Missouri tornado touched down around 3:30 am Wednesday and moved through a rural area of Bollinger County, about 50 miles south of St. Louis.
Trees were uprooted and homes turned into piles of splinters. One building was flipped on its side.
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Too Windy to Learn? Some Western Kansas Schools Closed this Week Due to High Winds
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW/KPR) — Numerous schools in southwest Kansas called off classes this week due to high winds. KSNW TV reports that public school districts in Morton, Stanton, Seward and Grant counties decided to cancel classes and other activities Tuesday. School officials said the move was a safety measure because the forecast predicted extremely high winds and blowing dust. More windy weather is expected the rest of the week. The ongoing drought in southwest Kansas has contributed to recent, massive dust storms reminiscent of the "Dirty Thirties." In the 1930s, this part of southwest Kansas was known as the Dust Bowl.
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Kansas Passes Trans Bathroom Bill; Arkansas OKs Own Version
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP/KPR) — A Kansas proposal with bathroom restrictions and a ban on transgender people changing their driver's licenses has cleared the Republican-controlled Legislature. The state Senate voted 28-12 on Tuesday with one vote more than a two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's expected veto. The action came the same day Arkansas lawmakers sent Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders a scaled back bathroom bill of their own with criminal penalties.
The measure deals with bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities, and defines "sex" as "either male or female, at birth," a move LGBTQ rights advocates said would legally erase transgender people and deny recognition to non-binary, gender fluid and gender non-conforming people.
The final vote came less than two hours after Arkansas lawmakers sent Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders a bathroom bill after scaling it back following complaints it would have criminalized transgender people for simply using a public restroom. The Arkansas bill would allow transgender people to be charged with a misdemeanor for using bathrooms or changing rooms associated with their identities if cisgendered minors are present, but only if they enter it "for the purpose of arousing or gratifying a sexual desire." The wave of legislation has angered and vexed LGBTQ-rights activists, transgender people and parents of transgender children.
"I am what they are scared of," Ian Benalcazar, a 13-year-old northeastern Kansas transgender boy said during a recent LGBTQ-rights rally outside the Statehouse. "I am a human being and I deserve to be treated as such, and I deserve to be happy."
Arkansas is among seven states that have banned transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms associated with their gender identities, its law taking effect this summer. However, the Kansas measure also covers prisons, jails, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other spaces "where biology, safety or privacy" prompt separate facilities for men and women. The Kansas bill defines male and female based on a person's physical anatomy at birth.
The measure now headed to Kelly would declare that legally, "sex" means "biological" sex, "either male or female, at birth." And it adds, "important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety and privacy" justify separate spaces for men and women like bathrooms and locker rooms.
"This will protect women's spaces currently reserved for women and and men's spaces," said House Health Committee Chair Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who voted for the bill. Supporters framed their measure as a proposed "Women's Bill of Rights," similar to measures introduced in Congress and at least five other states. Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, said lawmakers are trying to protect families amid what people see as a small but growing number of cases of transgender girls or women using facilities with cisgendered girls or women. "People are starting to pay attention," Masterson said.
Kansas House members included provisions requiring accommodations for some intersex people born with chromosomes, genitalia, or reproductive organs not associated with typical definitions for males or females.
The House vote last month was 83-41, one vote shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to override any veto, but one conservative Republican likely to support the bill was absent. Kelly vetoed a proposed ban on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports this year for the third straight year. Republican lawmakers in Kansas also are pursuing a bill aimed at stopping gender-affirming care for minors, something at least 11 states have done.
Carson Rapp, a Wichita area 15-year-old who identifies as bigender or embracing "both more masculine and more feminine traits," said expressing one's gender identity doesn't harm others. "Why stop people from doing it if they're just being themselves and having fun and expressing themselves?" Carson said during an LGBTQ-youth lobbying day.
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Kansas OKs Bill that Penalizes Doctors for Some Abortions
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP/KPR) — Kansas lawmakers have given final passage to a bill that could subject doctors to lawsuits or criminal charges if they're accused of not providing enough care to infants born alive during certain kinds of abortion procedures. The Kansas House passed the bill 86-36. The Kansas Senate approved it last week and the bill goes next to Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, who vetoed a similar bill in 2019. The legislation faces an uncertain fate. The bill applies to "botched" or "unsuccessful" abortions. It also applies in situations where doctors induce labor to deliver a live fetus that is expected to die within minutes outside the womb. The Kansas House voted 86-36 to approve a proposed "born-alive infants protection" law. The Senate approved the measure last week and it goes next to Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, who vetoed such a bill in 2019. The Senate voted 31-9 for the bill last week, meaning it passed both chambers with more than the two-thirds majorities necessary to override a potential veto from Kelly.
The "born alive" measure is premised on a claim that abortion providers leave newborns to die if they're delivered alive during an abortion procedure. "We can have differing views on abortion and still agree on the need for this legislation as a humanitarian issue," the Kansas House's three top Republicans said in a joint statement. Even if abortion opponents succeed in overriding any veto, the measure could still be challenged in court and not enforced. Critics of the bill said the state would be intervening in difficult medical and ethical decisions between doctors and parents.
Kansas abortion opponents haven't pushed to ban abortion outright despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June 2022 that the U.S. Constitution allows it. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that access to abortion is a "fundamental" right under the state constitution, and in August 2022, voters rejected a proposed change to strip away protections for abortion rights.
The Kansas measure is similar to laws in 18 other states requiring infants delivered alive during labor and delivery abortions to go to a hospital and imposing criminal penalties for doctors who don't provide the same care "a reasonably diligent and conscientious" provider would with other live births. In Kansas, failing to provide reasonable care for such a newborn would be a felony, punishable by a year's probation for a first-time offender. Also, the newborn's parents and the parents or guardians of minors seeking abortions could sue providers.
Kansas doesn't collect data on births during induced abortion procedures, or other abortion procedures. The bill would require annual reports to the state.
Anti-abortion groups argue that there are likely hundreds of infants delivered alive during abortion procedures each year in the U.S. "One important aspect of the bill is that it would require that reporting on abortion survivors," said Kelsey Pritchard, spokesperson for the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Abortion rights supporters argue that the Kansas measure and laws in other states are designed to paint a misleading picture of abortion care.
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Kansas House Reverses Vote, Approves State-Run Presidential Primaries
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas House lawmakers reversed their previous vote Tuesday and approved a plan to create state-run presidential primaries next year. House members used a procedural move to reconsider the bill and send it to the governor. The bill allows the Republican and Democratic parties to replace their party-run nomination procedures with a primary that uses the state voting system. Some Republican lawmakers rejected the plan a day earlier over the $5 million cost to the state. But Republican Rep. Susan Estes says election officials could lower the price tag by consolidating polling places. “When you have a ballot that applies statewide, you could do some megasites that run more efficiently," she said. Supporters of the plan contend that a state-run election would be more convenient for voters and would increase voter turnout.
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Kansas Legislature Approves Bill to Remove Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would make it easier to pursue criminal charges or file lawsuits over childhood sexual abuse, even if the abuse is reported many years after it occurred. The House approved the measure unanimously, 120-0. The Senate also approved it unanimously last week. The bill is now headed to Governor Laura Kelly. The bill would eliminate time limits on prosecution for any of a dozen violent sexual offenses against children. The new law would also extend the deadline for filing a lawsuit seeking monetary damages to when abuse survivors turn 31 or three years after the abuser is convicted of a sexually violent crime against a child. Currently, such a lawsuit may only be files for up to three years after the victim turns 18.
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Wind Turbine Lights Curtailed Under Bill Headed to Governor
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Flashing red lights atop wind turbines would be curtailed to improve nighttime views under a bill that has been sent to the governor. If signed by Democrat Governor Laura Kelly, it would require installation of light-mitigating technology on new and existing wind farms. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the aircraft detection lighting system technology would turn off the lights except for when aircraft are near. Republican Rep. Lisa Moser, of Wheaton, said aircraft aren't near a wind farm about 97% of the time the lights are blinking. "This bill came about because there are thousands of Kansans who see red blinking lights every three seconds, 24 hours a day," Moser said, "and this is legislation that will mitigate that." Kansas has about about 4,000 turbines now with plans to add 6,000 more, Moser said.
It could take years for the new systems to be installed, with new developments required to comply first. Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, said a radar system is about $1.5 million, and one should be enough for most developments. That's less than the approximate $5 million cost to build a single turbine, he said.
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Scrap Metal Dealers Could Face Penalties for Catalytic Converter Purchases
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Scrap metal dealers could soon face criminal penalties for buying stolen catalytic converters. Lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at curbing the rampant theft of the auto parts, sending the bill to the governor for consideration. Dustin Fussell, with the Wichita Police Department, says these thefts are popular because thieves can make thousands of dollars selling a few parts. There are also plenty of cars to target. “These things are easy to steal. It’s quick. I’ve seen people in videos steal these things in 60 seconds.” The changes would require scrap metal dealers to gather information about people selling catalytic converters. Fussell says catalytic converter thefts are on the rise because scrap metal prices are increasing. “This is a pretty lucrative market," he said. "It has actually been talked about as the modern day gold rush.” Fussell said scrap metal dealers could pay up to $1,000 per catalytic converter.
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Kansas Bill Encourages Water Conservation in Western Kansas
HAYS, Kan. (KNS/HPPR) - Water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer continue to drop in western Kansas. But until recently, state leaders have been reluctant to intervene to limit how much water farmers can use to irrigate their crops. The Kansas News Service reports that state lawmakers have now approved a measure that pushes groundwater districts to reduce water usage in the areas with the most severe aquifer depletion. Kansas State University professor Matthew Sanderson believes some long-held attitudes about water in Kansas might be changing. “I feel like the culture is shifting towards a culture of conservation now," he said. "I think the real question is, is there enough time?” Water geologists say the goal should be to stabilize the aquifer's levels over the next 20 years.
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Kansas Supreme Court Dismisses Emporia State Professors’ Request to Intervene in Firings
TOPEKA, Kan. (Kansas Reflector) — The Kansas Supreme Court has dismissed a request by former Emporia State University professors to intervene in their dismissals from the school. The Kansas Reflector reports that the 33 faculty members who were fired by the university in September were allowed to file appeals, but they were not allowed to ask why they were terminated, examine recommendations resulting in the termination, or call witnesses to testify before the appeals officer. Before dismissing the request to intervene in the firings, the Supreme Court asked ESU and the Board of Regents to respond to complaints with the appeals process itself. Anthony Powell, solicitor general for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, wrote the response. Powell argued there was no reason for the Supreme Court to get involved, in part, because “this is not a case of statewide importance.” The firings were justified, he wrote, because of the university’s financial condition, including an operating deficit of $5.6 million in 2023. The professors should await a ruling by appeals officers, Powell said. If they don’t like the outcome, they could pursue litigation at the district court level.
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Pear Tree Removal Program Ratchets up in Northeast Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KNS) — A program to replace invasive ornamental pear trees with native trees is expanding in northeast Kansas. If you’re noticing lots of trees covered in white flowers this spring, most of them are highly invasive ornamental pears. Tree experts say the invasive trees are ruining Kansas and Missouri woodlands and prairies and contributing to declining bird and insect numbers. In April and May, homeowners in the Topeka and Kansas City areas who kill ornamental pear trees can get professional help picking out a free replacement tree. The group Deep Roots KC, is a non-profit collective working to increase native plant landscapes. Deep Roots is giving free native trees to homeowners who kill the invasive pear trees. The group says the native trees will help bees, birds and butterflies. Deep Roots KC says it plans to expand the program west to other parts of Kansas in coming years. Homeowners can visit the Deep Roots website to participate
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Kansas Law Enforcement Conducting Campaign Against Distracted Driving
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Starting this week, Kansas law enforcement agencies will be taking additional steps to combat distracted driving. The Kansas Highway Patrol views distracted driving as anything that takes drivers attention away from the roadways. Distractions include things like eating and drinking while driving as well as talking or texting on your phone. The highway patrol says looking at a text message on your phone can take your eyes away from the road for five seconds and five seconds at highway speed covers the length of a football field. KSNT reports that the KHP will have additional enforcement across the state in support of Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
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Chiefs' Travis Kelce to Host Music Festival in Kansas City Area
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Travis Kelce is living his best life: On the heels of winning the Super Bowl and hosting “Saturday Night Live,” the Kansas City Chiefs superstar tight end will cap his successful string with a music festival this month. The two-time Super Bowl winner announced Tuesday that he’ll host his first-ever festival called “Kelce Jam” during NFL Draft weekend. The inaugural event will be held April 28 at the Azura Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas — a metropolitan area of Kansas City. The event will feature performances by Machine Gun Kelly, Rick Ross, DJ duo Loud Luxury and Kansas City rap legend Tech N9ne.
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.