TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly for the third straight year has vetoed model legislation that would ban transgender girls from playing college sports with cisgender girls.

The Democratic governor mentioned Friday the annual attack on transgender students sends “a signal to potential firms that Kansas is extra focused on unnecessary and divisive legislation than becoming a spot exactly where young men and women want to function and raise a family members.

“Let’s be clear about what this bill is all about — politics,” Kelly mentioned. “It will not boost any test scores. It will not support any little ones study or create. It will not support any teachers prepare our little ones for the genuine planet. Here’s what this bill would truly do: harm the mental well being of our students. That is specifically why Republican governors have joined me in vetoing comparable bills.”

Home Bill 2238 would need youngsters as young as kindergarten age to participate in college activities primarily based on the gender they have been assigned at birth. Challenges potentially could expose them to genital inspections.

The Kansas State Higher College Activities Association mentioned earlier this year that the law would apply to about two student athletes in Kansas schools.

Republicans hold supermajority ranks in each chambers, but it remains unclear regardless of whether they have the 84 votes necessary to override the veto in the Home. One particular Democrat joined Republicans in the Home in passing the bill by an 82-40 margin on Feb. 23. Republicans in the Senate, which only desires 27 votes to override a veto, passed the bill by a 28-11 margin on March 9.

Debates this year have mirrored previous discussions on transgender athletes. The Legislature passed comparable bills in 2021 and 2022.

Republicans argue the bill is essential to defend girls from losing scholarship possibilities or sharing locker rooms with boys, and regularly use speaking points spawned by anti-LGBTQ hate groups that crafted the model legislation.

When the governor campaigned for reelection final year, she acknowledged that males shouldn’t compete in women’s sports. But Republicans have refused to acknowledge a distinction involving males and transgender girls.

“Now that she no longer has to face the voters, the governor has carried out a further about face,” mentioned Home Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican.

Hawkins mentioned the bill passed the Home and Senate “with broad help to defend the rights of female athletes in the state by requiring that female student athletic teams only incorporate members who are biologically female. This is frequent sense. Republicans in the Home will make just about every work to override this veto.”

Rija Nazir, of Loud Light, participates in a March six, 2023, rally at the Statehouse for bodily autonomy. She says legislation targeting transgender athletes was never ever about sports. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Rija Nazir, of the civic action group Loud Light, mentioned the bill was “never about sports or athletes.”

“Not only does this bill fail to have an understanding of the distinction involving sex and gender, but dehumanizes cisgender girls by measuring them by the possible function of their reproductive organs,” Nazir mentioned. “The Kansas Legislature need to be ashamed of themselves for attempting to infringe on the privacy of minors.”

This establishing story will be updated.