Kansas Republicans Locked Chamber Doors to Force an Anti-Trans Vote. They Failed Anyway

Samantha Riedel
·3 min read
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John Hanna/AP Photo

Kansas legislators narrowly upheld Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth this week, as two Republicans defected at the eleventh hour.

Senate Bill 233, if entered into law, would have prohibited Kansas doctors from recommending or prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to anyone under 18. It would have also banned state employees from “promoting” for a child any kind of gender transition (including social transition) and barred any use of state funds to pay for children’s medical transitions. The bill also sought to ban gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth, but carved out an exception allowing surgeons to operate without consent on intersex children whose genitals are “irresolvably ambiguous.”

The bill would also have stripped healthcare providers of their licenses by labeling the administration of such care “unprofessional conduct.” Similar versions of that clause have been found in other such bills in Ohio, Nebraska, and Montana.

Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the bill on April 12. On Monday, the Kansas Senate voted 27-13 to override Kelly’s veto, and the House looked poised to follow suit. But in an upset later that day, the final House tally was 82-43, two votes short of a successful two-thirds majority, as the Kansas Reflector reported. Despite Republican attempts to defeat the veto by locking the chamber doors and requiring a vote from every member, according to the Reflector, two GOP representatives who had supported the bill — Susan Concannon and Jesse Borjon — abruptly changed their votes.

“We hear about mental health, about suicide, and ask why,” Concannon reportedly told the chamber following her vote. “We’re not listening to the impact of youth. Government involvement is not the answer.”

Both Concannon and Borjon said the final bill was “vague,” the Associated Press noted, but Borjon said he would still support a ban on gender-affirming surgeries and restrictions on hormone therapy for minors in the future.

In a statement late Monday, ACLU of Kansas Executive Director Micah Kubic lauded the narrow win over “one of the most extreme anti-trans laws in the country.”

Kansas GOP Says It Will Override Governor’s Veto of Gender-Affirming Care Ban

“I do not believe that is a conservative value, and it’s certainly not a Kansas value,” Governor Laura Kelley said of her veto.

“Blocking SB 233 is a victory for transgender kids, their families, and advocates across the state,” Kubic said. “There is an accepting, kinder Kansas ahead of us, and we look forward to the day that the legislature moves on from these attempts at government intrusion into the doctor’s office, the classroom, and the home.”

Gov. Kelly’s pro-trans vetoes have drawn the ire of state Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who earlier this year attempted to force Kansas schools to out trans students. Kobach filed a lawsuit against Kelly’s administration last July, after Kelly opposed Kobach’s plan to prevent trans Kansans from changing their gender marker on state ID cards.

In her veto message last month, Kelly attacked Republicans’ priorities, accusing them of spending too much time attacking trans kids and their families.

“If the legislature paid this much attention to the other 99.8% of students, we’d have the best schools on earth,” Kelly wrote.

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