By Anna Kaminski – Kansas Reflector
January 28, 2025
TOPEKA — Identical bills in the Kansas House and Senate are attempting to ban gender-affirming care for minors in a renewed effort from Republicans to clamp down on transgender youths’ health care.
Senate and House health committees Tuesday heard testimony in jam-packed committee rooms from transgender youths and their parents, transgender men and women, teachers, health care professionals, a clergyman, religious advocates and national activists.
The bills ban medical procedures recommended or performed in response to gender dysphoria, the psychological distress that arises when a person’s biological sex and gender identity differ. They would also create the opportunity for civil penalties for doctors who violate the proposed “help not harm act.”
A similar bill passed both chambers in 2024, but Gov. Laura Kelly halted it with a veto that the Legislature failed to override. But the 2025 Legislature has a different makeup and expanded Republican supermajorities.
Sections of the bills’ text are lifted from model legislation — sometimes word for word — from the national policy advocacy nonprofit Do No Harm, which is focused on opposing gender-affirming care and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The nonprofit has a registered lobbyist in Kansas, according to Secretary of State’s Office records.
Chloe Cole, a 20-year-old from California, was the first to testify before both committees. Cole, who was listed in 2023 as a patient advocate for Do No Harm, began the process of transitioning at 13 and later “de-transitioned.” She has testified across the United States in favor of bans on gender-affirming for young people, acting as a face and voice for conservative anti-trans ideals. In her testimony, she recalled her experience with puberty blockers, testosterone and surgery as a teenager to illustrate what she dubbed “a series of poisons and body modifications.”
“My health care provider failed me in several ways, but the worst was pushing me toward medical transition when I was just a child,” Cole told legislators. “They should’ve protected me. I should have been guided with real care and helped to understand who I really was.”
Republican Senator Renee Erickson, of Wichita, requested the introduction of Senate Bill 63, and Coffeyville Republican Rep. Ron Bryce introduced House Bill 2071 to “protect children with gender dysphoria from harmful treatments.” House committee Democrats scrutinized the bill.
“I just want to clarify that this proposed legislation is not banning any one treatment in its entirety, it’s only proposing to ban it for one group of people and that is trans children,” said Rep. Suzanne Wikle, a Lawrence Democrat.
Estimates indicate there are more than 2,000 transgender youths ages 13-18 in Kansas and about 12,400 transgender adults.
Olathe Democratic Rep. Nikki McDonald asked Carly Choi, a legislative staff member who helps write and describe proposed bills, whether any other instances exist in which “the law is weaponized to penalize medical providers for working with their scope of practice with threats of losing their license, threats of civil penalties for more than a decade, threats of withholding the ability to be covered by medical malpractice insurance.”
“Can you think of another instance where the law is weaponized this way?” McDonald asked.
Choi responded: “No, representative.”
D.C. Hiegert, a legal fellow with the ACLU of Kansas who is trans, told legislators in both the House and Senate committees that the bills could be unconstitutional. They run the risk of violating Kansas’ right to personal autonomy, as affirmed by the Kansas Supreme Court.
“People will not stop being trans because Kansas bans this care or punishes its medical providers,” Heigert said. “Trans people will still exist in Kansas and in every state in our country just as they always have.”
The hearings were the latest in a series of bids to regulate and litigate transgender issues. They came a day after the Kansas Court of Appeals heard arguments in a case weighing a challenge from Attorney General Kris Kobach over the Kansas Department of Revenue practice of allowing residents to identify their preferred gender, rather than sex, on driver’s licenses.
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