Kansas bans gender-affirming care for minors after GOP lawmakers reverse
the governor's veto
Send a link to a friend
[February 19, 2025]
By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas became the latest state to ban
gender-affirming care for minors Tuesday after the Republican-controlled
Legislature overrode the Democratic governor's veto of the measure.
Kansas is the 27th state to ban or restrict such care. GOP lawmakers
reversed Gov. Laura Kelly's veto less than a month after President
Donald Trump issued an order barring federal support for
gender-affirming care for youth under 19.
“I just held my 16-year-old daughter, and we cried while we watched them
try to erase her existence,” Elise Flatland, a Kansas City-area mother
of two transgender children, said in a text message after livestreams of
the votes.
The new law is set to take effect this month, and critics have predicted
that doctors or parents or both will file a state-court lawsuit
challenging it.
Supporters of such bans argued that they protect vulnerable children
from what they see as a “radical” ideology about gender and from making
irreversible medical decisions too young.

[to top of second column]
|

A protester holds a transgender pride flag at a rally outside the
Kansas Statehouse, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP
Photo/John Hanna)

“This is a fork in the road,” said Republican state Rep. Ron Bryce, a
southeastern Kansas doctor who backed the ban. “This is who we are as a
people, as a state.”
The Kansas law will prohibit puberty blockers, hormone therapies or
surgery for a minor to transition away from their gender assigned at
birth. State employees caring for children won’t be allowed to provide
or encourage such treatment — or encourage social transitioning.
The votes to override Kelly's veto were 85-34 in the House and 31-9 in
the Senate. Republicans hold supermajorities in both, and only one GOP
lawmaker voted against overturning the veto.
Groups backing transgender rights immediately announced that they would
provide financial assistance and other help to families seeking care for
transgender youth outside Kansas.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |