Nation’s leading LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization urges Kansas legislators to uphold Gov. Kelly’s veto; warns that extremist bill grants Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach unprecedented powers to invade privacy
Lambda Legal today applauded Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 244 and urged Kansas legislators to uphold the governor’s veto and not allow the draconian anti-trans bill that imposes a facilities ban and restricts access to accurate IDs to take effect. The bill is promoted by the state’s notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ attorney general, Kris Kobach.
Lambda Legal, the nation’s leading LGBTQ+ legal advocacy nonprofit organization, stressed that SB244 was rushed through the state legislature using a suspect legislative maneuver that violated democratic principles by blocking the opportunity for public input. SB244 would create outrageous criminal penalties and impose a “bounty hunter regime” for harmless conduct. The legislation also seeks to eliminate and retroactively strip transgender Kansans of legal recognition of their identities in state identity documents, as secured by Lambda Legal in 2019.
“It is impossible to overstate the harms this extremist legislation would visit on transgender Kansans and many others if allowed to take effect,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Senior Counsel and Health Care Strategist, Lambda Legal. “ 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.”
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.
Attorney General Koback 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, he 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 added. “Lambda Legal has fought successfully on behalf of transgender Kansans before, and are ready to fight again, if necessary.”
BACKGROUND:
Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit Foster v. Andersen in October 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas on behalf of four transgender individuals born in Kansas – Nyla Foster, Luc Bensimon, Jessica Hicklin and a client identified by his initials, C.K. The lawsuit also has an organizational plaintiff, the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project, Inc. (K-STEP), which was founded by transgender Kansas advocate Stephanie Mott, who spearheaded the group until her death in March 2019.
Under the consent judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, the court ordered the Secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and other Kansas government officials to provide accurate birth certificates that reflect their true sex, consistent with their gender identity, and agrees that the policy prohibiting gender marker corrections to birth certificates violated the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.