Kansas Republicans pass anti-trans bathroom bill into law over Gov. Kelly’s veto
.JPG "Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas.")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Legislature overrode veto to restrict restrooms in government-owned buildings.
- Law forces surrender of amended IDs and restores sex assigned at birth on records.
- Opponents warn of financial, legal and safety harms to transgender Kansans and taxpayers.
Local governments, school districts and public colleges in Kansas will have a matter of days to conform their facilities to a new state law restricting who can use restrooms and other private spaces in government-owned buildings.
Kansas Republicans this week overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of SB 244, which also prohibits transgender Kansans from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Under the new law, identification documents that have already been amended must be surrendered and replaced with versions that reflect the person’s sex assigned at birth.
The Senate voted 31-9 to override the veto on Tuesday, and the House followed suit by a vote of 87-37 on Wednesday.
“This isn’t about scoring political points, but doing what’s right for women and girls across our communities,” said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who’s running for insurance commissioner. “Kansans expect clarity, not confusion. They expect leadership, not surrender to radical activists.”
House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat, sharply rebuked Republicans for supporting “a poorly written, rushed and repugnant piece of legislation that belongs in the very bathroom that you’re attempting to police.”
The legislation, originally adopted late last month through a series of procedural maneuvers that circumvented public input, will prohibit multi-stall gender-neutral restrooms and other unisex private spaces in government buildings.
It will require people to use restrooms, showers and locker rooms in those buildings in accordance with their sex assigned at birth, even if they have undergone treatment to fully transition. Anyone who believes someone used the wrong restroom in their presence could file a complaint seeking $1,000.
“There’s absolutely no evidence that links trans-inclusive bathrooms and crimes in bathrooms,” Rep. Lindsay Vaughn, an Overland Park Democrat, said during the floor debate. “The claim that this bill protects women is egregious. This bill does not protect women. This bill weaponizes women’s rights language against a vulnerable population.”
Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crimes, according to data from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
Anyone found to have improperly used a restroom or other private space in a government building would face a written warning for a first violation. A second violation would carry a $1,000 fine, and each subsequent violation would be a misdemeanor offense punishable by another fine and up to six months in jail.
Rep. Carolyn Caiharr, a Republican who also serves as mayor of Edwardsville, accused Democrats of abandoning women and girls by voting to sustain Kelly’s veto.
“Our young women deserve to be able to have restrooms and locker rooms where they can undress without men in the room,” Caiharr said. “When women are in such a vulnerable space, they deserve privacy. This bill protects girls and women — the ones feminists used to claim to stand for.”
Dispute over implementation
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican running for governor and auditioning for an endorsement from President Donald Trump, borrowed language from then-candidate Trump’s 2024 campaign advertisement to crow about the legislative victory.
“Kansas Democrats are for They/Them,” he said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for you, and protect women and girls across our state.”
The bill will become law upon publication in the Kansas Register, which publishes weekly on Thursdays. SB 244 will likely be published in next week’s edition.
In response to the override, Kelly reiterated her assertion that the new law will have wide-ranging implications beyond restricting restroom usage.
“Not only will this bill keep brothers from visiting sisters’ dorms and husbands from wives’ shared hospital rooms, it will cost Kansas taxpayers millions of dollars to comply with this very vague legislation,” Kelly said in a statement.
“It is nothing short of ridiculous that the Legislature is forcing the entire state, every city and town, every school district, every public university to spend taxpayer money on a manufactured problem,” she continued.
Rep. Susan Humphries, a Wichita Republican who carried the bill on the House floor in January, rejected the notion that its implementation will cost school districts and other units of government anything beyond the price of updating signage.
“The claim that this is going to cost taxpayers money is egregious,” she said. “The claim that it’s not going to keep people safe is egregious. The societal norm that we’re talking about (upholding) is that men go in men’s rooms and women go in women’s rooms.”
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, suggested that the bill’s implementation could have another cost in the form of lost revenue from businesses that exit the state or decide against relocating to Kansas.
“We have seen other states, most notably North Carolina, lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue after passing legislation like House Substitute for SB 244,” Sykes said in a statement.
She also accused Republicans of rushing to pass the bill in response to Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and trans woman, being appointed to fill a House vacancy in January.
For her part, Boatman said the bill “is about blaming women for the bad behavior of men.”
“On its face, this bill obviously discriminates against transgender people in ways that will make our lives exponentially more difficult and dangerous,” Boatman said. “But more insidiously, it is yet another way of policing women and our bodies in the absence of men and masculinity being subjected to the same scrutiny.”
Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, a Lenexa Democrat, condemned the Legislature’s move to invalidate driver’s licenses and other state documents that don’t align with a person’s sex assigned at birth. The law will require Kansas to send letters informing people that they will have to surrender their state documents for replacement at their own cost.
“Individuals should not have to pay twice for an otherwise uninterrupted driver’s license,” Hoye said, noting that a motion to fund the cost of providing new licenses was rejected in the House Appropriations Committee. “It should not be this quick and easy for the government to invalidate anyone’s birth certificate and driver’s license.”
Last month, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Revenue told The Star that the agency had processed 159 gender changes on ID’s since a district court injunction was lifted in October.
Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, took a moment on the House floor to address transgender Kansans directly.
“We will continue to fight and we will continue to speak up for you,” she said. “We need for you to stay in the fight, too. Please get any help that you might need. Go and talk to somebody safe about what is happening. But stay with us. We need you in our world.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Kansas Republicans pass anti-trans bathroom bill into law over Gov. Kelly’s veto."
