“I just held my 16-year-old daughter, and we cried while we watched them try to erase her existence,” Elise Flatland, a Kansas City-area mother of two transgender children, said in a text message after livestreams of the votes.
The new law is set to take effect this month, and critics have predicted that doctors or parents or both will file a state-court lawsuit challenging it.
Supporters of such bans argued that they protect vulnerable children from what they see as a “radical” ideology about gender and from making irreversible medical decisions too young.
“This is a fork in the road,” said Republican state Rep. Ron Bryce, a southeastern Kansas doctor who backed the ban. “This is who we are as a people, as a state.”
The Kansas law will prohibit puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgery for a minor to transition away from their gender assigned at birth. State employees caring for children won’t be allowed to provide or encourage such treatment — or encourage social transitioning.
The votes to override Kelly's veto were 85-34 in the House and 31-9 in the Senate. Republicans hold supermajorities in both, and only one GOP lawmaker voted against overturning the veto.
Groups backing transgender rights immediately announced that they would provide financial assistance and other help to families seeking care for transgender youth outside Kansas.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP