Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly this weekend vetoed Senate Bill 244, which Lambda Legal described as a “draconian anti-trans bill that imposes a facilities ban and restricts access to accurate IDs to take effect.” Lambda Legal issued a press release applauding Kelly’s action and urging Kansas state legislators to uphold the governor’s veto, noting that SB 244 “is promoted by the state’s notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ attorney general, Kris Kobach.”
According to the Kansas Reflector, “The bill requires government entities to police bathrooms and other private spaces in their buildings, and levies fines against the governing body for failing to comply. It also sets up escalating penalties for individuals who use a bathroom that doesn’t match their sex at birth.”
SB 244 was “rushed through the state legislature using a suspect legislative maneuver that violated democratic principles by blocking the opportunity for public input,” the Lambda Legal press release said, adding that the measure would “create outrageous criminal penalties and impose a ‘bounty hunter regime’ for harmless conduct” and would “eliminate and retroactively strip transgender Kansans of legal recognition of their identities in state identity documents, as secured by Lambda Legal in 2019.”
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior counsel and health care strategist with Lambda Legal, said, “It is impossible to overstate the harms this extremist legislation would visit on transgender Kansans and many others if allowed to take effect. SB244 would require transgender Kansans to use public facilities that do not align with who they are and to carry inaccurate and conflicting identity documents that cause confusion and expose them to harassment and abuse, and would put a target on their backs through a bounty system that will encourage extreme violations of their privacy by those seeking financial gain.
“Make no mistake, the unprecedented and unlawful bounty system in this legislation would expose all Kansans — not just those who are transgender — to intrusive and abusive violations of their privacy,” Gonzalez-Pagan added.
SB244 was “rushed through” the Kansas Senate through a procedure known as “Gut and Go,” wherein the original contents of SB244 were removed and replaced with the contents of a previously approved House bill and then rushed through the Senate without a public hearing, according to the Lambda Legal press release.
The press release explains that Kobach has “long sought to void the 2019 consent decree between Lambda Legal and the state of Kansas that resulted from Lambda Legal’s 2019 challenge to Kansas’ birth certificate correction ban, Foster v. Andersen, and established the right of transgender people born in Kansas to correct their birth certificates.”
In 2023, after the legislature enacted Senate Bill 180, “also misnamed as the Women’s Bill of Rights Act,” the press release continues, Kobach filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas seeking to vacate the consent decree in light of the new law, which resulted in the prospective aspects of the consent decree to be vacated. The district court’s decision did not have retroactive effect, which is what SB244 seeks to do.
“SB244 is yet another unnecessary and cruel move that targets the transgender community with animus and discrimination for political gain,” Gonzalez-Pagan said. “Lambda Legal has fought successfully on behalf of transgender Kansans before, and are ready to fight again, if necessary.”
— Tammye Nash