Kansas bill to limit gender-affirming care for transgender minors dies after failed veto override

TOPEKA, Kan. — A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in Kansas died Monday when two Republicans switched their votes and prevented the Republican-controlled Legislature from overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure.

The Kansas House voted 82-43 to overturn Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill that also would have barred state employees who work with children from promoting social transitioning for kids who question or struggle with their gender identities. But supporters were two votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

Republicans who backed the bill argued that a ban would protect vulnerable children from what they described as experimental health care that could create long-term health issues. It would not only have banned surgeries for minors but also puberty blockers and hormone treatments. The Senate voted Monday morning 27-13 to override Kelly’s veto, the exact margin supporters needed there.

Since Kelly vetoed the bill earlier this month, its critics have focused on the provision aimed at keeping state workers from advocating for social transitioning, which under the bill included “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress.” LGBTQ rights advocates said it made Kansas’ proposed ban more sweeping than other states’ laws.

“I can breathe,” Iridescent Riffel, a transgender LGBTQ rights activist who worked against the bill, said in an interview after the House vote. “I’m relieved. I know many other families in Kansas are,” the 27-year old from from northeastern Kansas said.

LGBTQ rights advocates questioned whether the provision on social transitioning was written broadly enough to apply to public school teachers who show empathy for transgender