On transgender issue, councilman schools mayor in political courage | Opinion
In last year’s flap over the Wichita City Council’s Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation, I caught flak from both sides.
Left-wingers laid into me for supporting Mayor Lily Wu’s right not to read the proclamation in a council meeting.
Right-wingers got their kicks in later, when I took them to task for a movement within the Sedgwick County Republican Party to try to censure council member Becky Tuttle for supporting the proclamation.
You will never see me back off either of those stances.
It is a core belief of mine that it is equally un-American to muzzle someone from saying what they want to say (as in Tuttle’s case), or to compel someone to say what they don’t want to say (as in Wu’s case).
So here we are again. It’s a year later. Transgender Day of Visibility is back, to be celebrated March 31.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, there was another proclamation for it. And like last year, it was approved on a 4-3 split among council members.
But it’s different this year. The biggest difference is what’s been happening at the Statehouse in Topeka.
Our esteemed Legislature, in an exercise that can only be described as election-year pandering to bigotry, made it Job No. 1 to pass a discriminatory and mean-spirited law sending an unmistakable message to the Kansas transgender community: “We don’t want your kind around here.”
The legislation bans transgender persons from using public restrooms that align with their gender identity. And it voided the driver’s licenses of about 1,700 transgender individuals who have transitioned, requiring them to revert to their birth sex to be allowed to drive in the state.
And just to make it as painfully discriminatory as possible, the Republican-dominant Legislature made the law effective immediately. So transgender Kansans got a letter from the state Division of Vehicles on Feb. 25 informing them that as of Feb. 26, their licenses were “invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential.”
In what may the least sincere regrets ever delivered, the letter ended: “We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you.”
The Legislature passed the anti-trans law over the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly.
But that doesn’t let her off the hook for the chaotic rollout on the enforcement end. Her name, and that of her revenue secretary, Mark Burghart, were the only names on the threat letter from the Division of Vehicles, which is under Kelly’s control, not the Legislature’s.
It’s doubtful that any court would have punished Kelly if she had issued an executive order to delay enforcement for a reasonable period of time to at least give those affected some breathing space to get new licenses.
On Tuesday, a Douglas County judge declined to block the law for a period of two weeks. But the decision was largely moot because Attorney General Kris Kobach had already announced he’d delay enforcement until March 26.
Note to Laura Kelly: When Kris Kobach does something more compassionate for transgender people than you, it’s time for some self-reflection.
Returning to Wichita, Wu signed this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation as required by city code (her not doing so last year resulted in multiple complaints).
At Wu’s request, council member Joseph Shepard read the proclamation. But he also pointedly told the mayor why she should have.
“I would like to share that I was asked by the mayor to read tonight’s Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation, and I said yes, without any hesitation or question,” Shepard said. “This proclamation celebrates the lives, achievements and resilience of transgender people and acknowledges the hardships that they face . . . Doing so is not just the right thing morally, it strengthens public health, it grows our economy, it builds our workforce, it enriches the cultural fabric of who we are. Inclusion must be more than just words.”
And speaking directly to Wichita’s transgender community, he added this:
“You are my neighbor. You matter. Your safety matters, your lived experience matters in the city of Wichita, even when it feels like your life and humanity is under attack. . . . And there are members of this council that have your back and that support you, not just for show, but for real.”
Those are brave words in Kansas 2026, when it’s far more politically profitable to demonize transgender people than to defend them.
The fact that it takes courage to say what Shepard said Tuesday night says more about what we’ve become as a society than his words did.
And that’s desperately sad in a state that promotes itself with the slogan “There’s no place like home.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 7:43 AM.
