TOPEKA (LifeSiteNews) — Kansas Republicans have voted to override Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of legislation to keep gender-confused males out of female restrooms, setting up arguably the strongest law of its kind to take effect starting in July.
SB 180 affirms that “sex” is defined by biology and established at birth, and that “distinctions between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms and other areas where biology, safety or privacy are implicated that result in separate accommodations are substantially related to the important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety and privacy of individuals in such circumstances.”
“Any school district, or public school thereof, and any state agency, department or office or political subdivision that collects vital statistics for the purpose of complying with anti-discrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic or other data shall identify each individual who is part of the collected data set as either male or female at birth,” it adds.
The bill does not lay out enforcement mechanisms, which was a point of contention in the debate over its passage, but rather appears focused on setting legal standards to clarify court disputes on the subject.
Kelly vetoed it last week, along with other measures to strengthen parental rights and ban gender “transition” procedures on minors. She claimed that by “stripping away rights from Kansans and opening the state up to expensive and unnecessary lawsuits,” 180 would “hurt our ability to continue breaking economic records and landing new business deals.”
The Associated Press reports that on Thursday, the Kansas House voted 84-40 and the state Senate 28-12 to override Kelly’s veto of SB 180. “We want to have safety,” Republican state House Health Committee chair Brenda Landwehr said simply in support of the measure.
Conservatives warn that forcing children and teens to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives potential male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
The problem was recently put on full display in Virginia, where a grand jury returned charges against fired ex-Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler for allegedly covering up the rape of a female student by a “transgender” classmate in a girls’ bathroom due to its damaging implications for the LGBT movement.
SB 180 is the latest of several measures Kelly has vetoed only to be overridden by the more conservative legislature, following laws to guarantee medical care to infants who survive abortions and keep males out of female-specific athletic programs. Republicans are also currently working to reverse Kelly’s vetoes of legislation to require abortionists to make their customers aware of the option of abortion pill reversal, and to bar abortion providers from obtaining liability insurance via the state’s Health Care Stabilization Fund.