Dem
51
GOP
49
The Kansas legislature is very, very concerned about ensuring the integrity of high school girls' sports. And, to that end, it just passed a bill called the Fairness in Women's Sports Act. That bill, should it become law, would limit participation on girls' high school sports teams to students who were assigned female at birth. Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS) vetoed the bill; Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) is going to attempt to override the veto, and it looks like he probably has the votes to do it.
The legislature is "solving" a problem here that doesn't exist. First, as we've noted multiple times before, we are very skeptical that the legislators actually care about girls' high school sports. They have not much cared in the past, when it was time to make decisions about funding and such. Second, even if they do care, the number of trans girls who have endeavored to participate in high school sports in Kansas is rather small. It's happened a grand total of... three times. Is something this rare really worth the legislature's valuable time? And third, even if we assume that the legislators really do care, and even if we assume that those three trans girls are significant enough to merit the legislators' attention, the fact is Kansas already has rules on the books that govern the circumstances under which trans girls can participate in high school sports. Those rules essentially mirror the rules used by the International Olympic Committee and other sanctioning bodies.
In truth, the concern here isn't girls' high school sports, it's victimhood. That is to say, the politicians who wish to use trans people as a wedge issue need to create "victims" of trans people, so as to justify their crusade and rally voters behind it. Cis high school girls who have to compete against trans girls are "victims." Cis women who have to share a bathroom with trans women are "victims." Children who are exposed to drag queens (who, again, are incorrectly assumed to be trans) are "victims," either because they are being exposed to "perverse" ideas or because they are allegedly being placed at risk of molestation or other abuse. The anti-same-sex-marriage movement never did a great job of explaining exactly who was being harmed by allowing same-sex marriage. And guess what happened? Same-sex marriage was legalized. The anti-trans movement clearly does not intend to make the same tactical error. (Z)