The Democratic governor of Kansas has vetoed a bill banning biological males from women’s sports and another protecting parents’ rights in education.
SB 160, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, would have required “interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by public educational institutions to be designated based on biological sex.”
SB 58 would have established a “Parents’ Bill Of Rights” stating that “all parents have a right to direct the upbringing, education, care, and mental health of their child” and the right to “direct the education and care of the parent’s child and the right to direct the upbringing and moral or religious training of the parent’s child.”
The bills were driven by conservative Republicans and mirror similarly constructed legislation passed in other states. The issues will likely play a big role in Republican midterm messaging.
Republican state Senator Ty Masterson said that Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the measure because she is “largely controlled by the hard left,” NBC News reported.
“It’s about protecting the woman who worked and trained all her life and should not have her hard work wiped out by being forced to compete on unlevel playing fields,” Masterson said.
Kelly herself said that Republicans were politically driven in pushing the measures and that the bill banning biological males from women’s sports was “divisive” and would harm the state’s economy, the publication reported.
“It’s harmful to students and their families, and it’s bad for business,” said Kelly, who vetoed a similar bill last year.
Thank you Kansas Governor Laura Kelly for vetoing two anti-LGBTQ bills. SB 58 would give parents the ability to ban books which mention LGBTQ identity, and SB 160 which would ban trans athletes. Both cynically politicize our lives to score votes:https://t.co/Q9HSJlvIaZ
— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) April 18, 2022
Kansas Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kelly’s presumed gubernatorial opponent, has said that he would sign the bill.
At least 29 states in the U.S. have made moves to craft or pass legislation banning biological males from women’s sports, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Other Republican-backed legislation bans minors from obtaining transgender surgeries and hormones — medical interventions that advocates and many in the legacy media frame as “gender-affirming medical care.”
During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to enact the radically progressive Equality Act, criticizing the “onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families.”
“As I said last year, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I’ll always have your back as your president so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential,” Biden added.
Perhaps most recently, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill on March 30 banning biological males from women’s sports.
Stitt called the legislation “common sense,” pointing to the physiological advantages that biological men have over women, and thanked legislators for “doing the hard work” to put the bill on his desk.
“When it comes to sports and athletics, girls should compete against girls,” he said. “Boys should compete against boys. And let’s be very clear. That’s all this bill says.”
Only a few days earlier, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the state’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, a bill banning classroom discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation for little children.
The governor promised that parents have a “fundamental” role in the education, upbringing, and healthcare of their children, insisting that he will never cave to pressure from outside groups like Disney on this matter. (Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for kids entertainment content.)
The bill has been wildly misrepresented as “Don’t Say Gay” legislation by critics who most notably taken issue with HB 1557’s statement that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Students in kindergarten are typically five years old, while third graders generally are eight or nine years old.
Nowhere in the legislation is the word “gay” mentioned, though the word “parent” is mentioned 32 times and the word “parental” is mentioned eight times. The legislation heavily focuses on parental notification and parental awareness of what children are being taught or exposed to in school.