Draft bill would require Kansas students to play sports based on gender at birth

A Kansas lawmaker is circulating a draft bill that would require high school students to participate in sports based on their gender at birth, the latest in a growing number of similar proposals pending in state capitols nationwide, including Missouri.

Equality Kansas, the state’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, on Thursday released a copy of a bill under consideration by Rep. Michael Capps, a Wichita Republican whose interactions with children have previously drawn scrutiny from state investigators.

Tom Witt, the group’s director, said the measure would discriminate against transgender and gender non-conforming children and put a “target” on their backs.

“The bills we’re seeing now are targeted at kids. All across the country, the anti-LGBT bills are picking on little kids and that’s what we have here in this bill,” Witt said at a news conference. “We have grown men who should know better targeting juveniles for bigoted and hateful legislation.”

“Bullying and targeting specific communities in the State of Kansas is antithetical to who we are as Kansans,” Rep. Susan Ruiz and Rep. Brandon Woodard said in a joint statement. The two Democrats are the first two openly LGBTQ lawmakers in Kansas.

Capps confirmed to reporters that he drafted the bill, but has not formally introduced it.

He disagreed sharply with how Witt and other critics are characterizing the proposal. Capps said the bill isn’t designed to be harmful to anyone in the LGBTQ community.

“A biological girl wants to be in a competitive sport with other biological girls,” he said.

The one-page draft says the law “shall prohibit a student whose biological gender at birth is male from participating in an interscholastic athletic activity or event conducted exclusively for females and shall prohibit a student whose biological gender at birth is female from participating in an interscholastic athletic activity or even conducted exclusively for males.”

Similar bills have been introduced in more than a dozen states this year, according to Freedom For All Americans, an LGBTQ rights group that tracks legislation nationwide.

Missouri is considering its own measure, which would require students participating in any single-gender event to do so according to their biological sex. Unlike the draft Kansas bill, the Missouri proposal would amend the state constitution and require voter approval.

The proliferation of bills drew the attention of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic presidential candidate, who tweeted recently that transgender youth “need and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, not to be attacked by their state legislators.”

Capps’ explanation of his draft bill echoed statements from lawmakers in other states. In Tennessee, a state lawmaker who offered a similar proposal called it a “proactive” measure last month.

“It’s not intended to demean, degrade, or diminish anyone,” Rep. Bruce Griffey told CNN. “It’s just trying to maintain fairness.”

The legislation, if introduced, combined with Capps’ own history, could make for an explosive debate in the Statehouse. He was investigated in 2018 by the Kansas Department for Children and Families and found to have emotionally abused children while serving as a court-appointed special advocate. The finding was later overturned on a technicality. Capps has categorically denied the allegations.

The Kansas Republican Party and Sedgwick County Republican Party have both repudiated Capps previously, but he’s shown no interest in backing down. He faces a tough primary against Patrick Penn, who grew up in foster care.

Capps has also long taken an interest in student athletics. He serves as director for the Fourth and Long Foundation, a charity he established in 2013. According to its articles of incorporation, the organization exists to “create an environment of success” for low-income, at-risk and disadvantaged student-athletes and teachers, mentors and coaches that help them.

Caitlyn Rosen contributed to this story.

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 10:42 AM.