Prohibiting Progress: The Kansas State Legislature passed a bill banning female transgender athletes from participating in gender-affirming sports starting July 1

Transgender athletes in Kansas will no longer be allowed to compete in women’s sports from kindergarten through college starting July 1, according to House Bill 2238. This bill was passed to preserve fairness in women’s sports without any physical advantages over others.

In a CNN article covering the ban, State House Speaker Dan Hawkins, Majority Leader Chris Croft and Speaker of the House Blake Carpenter reiterated in a joint statement that the new law is protecting the rights of biologically female athletes.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act is to protect the rights of female athletes in the state of Kansas by requiring that female student athletic teams are only allowed to include members who are biologically female, according to Hawkins, Croft and Carpenter.  

The bill will require women to have biological indications of being female in order to participate in their sport from July and beyond.

The bill takes into account indicators like reproduction potential or capacity, sex chromosomes, naturally occuring sex hormones and unambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth. It’s currently undecided how these things will be determined.

“This is without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen or subjective experience of gender,” Stated in the bill. 

However, the bill will not exclude students of the female sex to participate on teams designated for males and it allows for male to female transitioned students to participate in mixed sports and men’s sporting events. 

Senior and Plus Club President Jeanne Ozkan argues that this bill is another way for queer rights to be stripped away. 

“I think it’s utter bullsh*t, it’s just a disguise to allow hate on trans people,” Ozkan said.

“If they’ve fully medically transitioned, there is no difference [in ability].”

There has been a continuous three-year effort by the Republican representatives to override governor Laura Kelly’s consistent vetoes on the bill. After the override, Kansas became the 20th state to enforce restrictions on trans students’ athletic participation.

Kelly’s veto was overridden 84-40 — the exact two-thirds majority needed, according to AP News.

In Kelly’s message regarding her veto, she believes this bill will ultimately cause mental health problems for trans-student athletes. 

“It won’t help any kids read or write,” Kelly wrote. “It won’t help any teachers prepare our kids for the real world. Here’s what the bill will actually do: harm the mental health of our students.”

Freshman Mazie Alber, who has two transgender cousins affected by this bill, feels this bill is reverting society from equality, she is devastated on how this will affect her loved ones. 

“There was a time where everything was starting to feel like it was getting better again, now after this bill was passed so much progress was just damaged,” Alber said. “I have two cousins who are trans, they are in college, and one of them plays basketball. From what I’ve heard, they’re devastated.”