Some fear Kansas GOP’s transgender resolution will push away young voters

Some young Republicans are voicing concern about the state party’s endorsement of a resolution to “oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.”

The concern comes as research shows a generational divide, with young people being more likely to support transgender rights.

In the resolution, the party’s state committee affirms "God’s design for gender as determined by biological sex and not by self-perception." The document also opposes efforts to surgically or hormonally alter an individual’s body to conform with "perceived gender identity."

Drake Robinson, vice chair of the Wichita State College Republicans, said in a written statement that the resolution surprised him.

“I believe that the leaders of the Kansas Republican Party need to focus on issues that are of pressing concern to the people of Kansas, such as the state budget, school funding, and other state programs,” he said. “I encourage the leaders of the Kansas Republican Party to turn their attention towards the needs of Kansans and conservative principles that unite us, as opposed to resolutions on secondary issues that do not benefit anyone.”

Paige Hungate, the student body president at Wichita State, spoke against the resolution. She said she didn’t see voting differences along ages during the meeting, and she pointed out that Eric Teetsel, who proposed the resolution, is in his 30s.

At the same time, she thinks more young people than not would have voted against it.

That makes her worry for her party’s future, she said.

“I think it’s just going to continue with the younger generation feeling like they can’t be part of the party and like they can’t relate and will be excluded from the party,” she said. “I think we’re at a really pivotal place and I think that if we continue down this path of exclusion versus inclusion, I think we’re going to really start to see that in votes and who’s getting elected.”

Kelly Arnold, chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, said he couldn’t comment on whether the resolution might affect younger voters since he ran the meeting where it was passed.

Mark Kahrs, national committeeman for the Kansas Republican Party, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tonya Buckingham, chairwoman of the Sedgwick County Republican Party, said she wasn’t sure whether the resolution would affect young people’s views of the party.

“We’ll have to see,” she said.

It would benefit the party to have different generations sit down and learn from each other, she added.

“Maybe listen to the Millennials, why they feel the way they feel, and them listen to Generation X and the Baby Boomers,” Buckingham said. “We all have the same core values in the Republican Party, I believe, but there are some differences that we should come together and talk about.”

Generational gap

According to the Pew Research Center, 67 percent of people ages 18-29 think transgender people should be able to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify.

That drops to 49 percent for people ages 30-49, 44 percent for people ages 50-64 and 45 percent for people 65 and older.

In a separate Pew survey, half of Millennials (ages 18-36) said someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different than the sex assigned at birth. Only 41 percent of those ages 37-52, 43 percent of those ages 53-71 and 37 percent of those ages 72-89 agreed with that statement.

Yet the same survey also found that political party was more important than age on this issue: About 80 percent of Republicans of all ages said whether someone is a man or a woman depends on the sex assigned at birth, while majorities of Democrats across generations said someone’s gender can be different than the sex assigned at birth.

That mirrors the partisan gap between generations: Millennials are the most likely group to lean or be Democrat, while the Silent Generation (ages 71-88) are the most likely to lean or be Republican.

Daniel Fry, a 29-year-old Kansas Republican, said he knew some people who were concerned with the wording of the resolution, even if they agreed with the sentiment. He said he thinks government should respect the personal liberties of transgender people but added that he doesn’t believe taxpayer dollars should go to transition surgeries or that the government should require businesses to allow people to use a bathroom other than the one of their sex at birth.

At the same time, Fry said he believes the Republican Party’s views will change as it adapts “to the current climate.”

“I’m a millennial Republican, so I’m a little more progressive with some of my social views than most of the older Republicans, but at the same time, I agree and disagree,” Fry said. “It’s one of those things. It’s an issue that’s not going away and it’s an issue that’s going to grow larger if we don’t progress with time.”

Young voters

Opinions among young Republicans vary as to whether the resolution might alienate their peers.

Brayden Hosman, chairman of the Wichita State College Republicans, said in a Twitter interview that he didn’t see any reason to be concerned about the party attracting younger voters.

When asked whether generational divides affect the party, Hosman said, “The beauty of it is that we can disagree on certain aspects, but when the time comes the Republican Party will unite as a whole.”

Ethan Randleas, 18, is one of several teenagers running for Kansas governor. From Wichita, Randleas recently decided to run as a libertarian rather than a Republican.

He said the Republican Party isn’t receptive to younger voters, including those who want small government on all issues.

Whether the resolution will alienate those voters depends “on how far they take it,” Randleas said. Although he said he thinks the resolution is mostly a ploy for publicity, legislation like last year’s bathroom bill could “isolate another voting bloc.”

Ben Sauceda, a 34-year-old Republican in Sedgwick County, said the social issues younger people care about vary, some aligning them more closely with the Republican Party and others separating them.

He hopes the resolution on transgender individuals won’t affect younger people’s view of the party and said the resolution could have been “done better.”

“We can achieve being truthful without being demeaning,” he said.

Ultimately, Sauceda thinks the resolution and attention on it has created a distraction from other issues discussed at the convention, including religious freedom, lower taxes, protection of life and limited government.

“It was a very small part of our convention in terms of what other things were accomplished and discussed,” he said.

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Some fear Kansas GOP’s transgender resolution will push away young voters."