Kansas senators have passed a bill that would essentially reward children for reporting trans kids who use certain restrooms and changing facilities.
Despite the fact that there are less than two weeks left on the legislative calendar — and a mountain of fiscal and social bills that needs attention — Kansas lawmakers have proposed two bills that take aim at transgender students. The legislation would prevent children from using restrooms that match their gender identity.
The bills — Senate Bill 513 and House Bill 2737 — collectively known as the “Student Physical Privacy Act,” allege that a “natural” concern over student privacy exists. The act would dictate that students can only access changing facilities that accord with their sex.
The bills state:
“Sex” means the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s chromosomes, and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy .
In one broad sweep of the pen, then, we are wiping out trans identity entirely. Unfortunately, this isn’t the worst provision in the bill.
The legislation would make it unlawful for trans students to use facilities that accord with their gender, stating:
Students who, while accessing a public school or postsecondary educational institution student restroom, locker room or shower room designated for use by such student’s sex, encounter a person of the opposite sex, have a private cause of action against the school district or postsecondary educational institution…
The bill goes on to list several qualifying factors, including a four year limit on viable claims.
In a provision that has shocked LGBT rights advocates, the bill then states that students who make such a legal complaint stand to gain a high financial payoff:
Statutory damages in an amount of $2,500 for each instance in which the aggrieved student encountered a person of the opposite sex while accessing a public school or post secondary educational institution student restroom, locker room or shower room designated for use by the aggrieved student’s sex.
Critics say that, whether intentional or not, the bill gives young people an impetus to report trans students — and further alienate them. There’s a high potential for harassment and false accusations.
It’s worth highlighting, too, that this legislative push covers state universities. Several universities, including Kansas State University, already have protections in place for trans people. The bill would establish a conflict of powers.
In a begrudging nod to the rights of trans children, the bill does provide accommodations for students who request extra privacy.
However, that provision creates a very narrow allowance that actually falls short of federal law — it states that trans kids can be given “access to single-stall bathrooms; access to unisex bathrooms; or controlled use of faculty bathrooms, locker rooms or shower rooms.”
The federal government has already stated it is unlawful to segregate trans children and make them use staff facilities or specially designated bathrooms.
Both lawmaking chambers are under Republican control, but with the looming April 1 deadline for legislative business to be completed, it’s unclear whether Republicans will dare to prioritize this discriminatory initiative.
As Think Progress notes, some Republicans believe these bills are unfocused and distract from issues, like the budget, that need attention.
Currently the legislation awaits hearings in education committees in both the House and Senate.
The time frame looks unlikely, but as North Carolina has just shown with its own attack on trans rights, when Republicans really want to move discriminatory legislation, they can find a way to do it.
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, explained that far from protecting students, this legislation has the absolute opposite effect: “This is isolating kids, and it’s not going to end well. It’s putting a target on their backs.”
We must also consider the school climate that this will create for all children. When discrimination is allowed to take root in schools, bullying can affect all students, not just those who are trans or belong to minority groups.
This legislation implies that trans children are a threat to other students and encourages a climate where outing trans people who use the same restroom as you is acceptable — and even rewarded.
That’s a terrible, dangerously transphobic message to send our youth.
The “Student Physical Privacy Act” accompanies more unfortunate news — Kansas Governor Sam Brownbackhas has signed SB 175 into law. The provision will allow university religious groups to bar LGBTI people from joining their ranks.
To take a stand against trans-phobic legislation, tell Kansas lawmakers to reject discrimination against trans students.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy