![]() ![]() Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.Your entire office will be able to use your search subscription. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. ![]() “Their oaths were to the Kansas Constitution, not the radical ideology of the extreme left.” “I support aggressive action by our attorney general to uphold the law and hold this administration accountable,” Masterson said. ![]() Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, called Kelly’s decision a “blatant” attempt to defy the intentions set out by SB180. Other entities, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, have called Kobach’s interpretation of the law incorrect. The governor doesn’t get to veto a bill and then ignore the Legislature’s override.” The Legislature passed SB 180 and overrode Governor Kelly’s veto specifically to ensure that those documents reflect biological sex at birth. “The governor has stated that SB 180 changes nothing with respect to drivers licenses and birth certificates,” Kobach said. The governor’s administration also said the new law won’t affect the Kansas Department of Revenue’s handling of driver’s licenses. Kelly’s office said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment would continue to follow the federal court order and protect the right to gender-affirming birth certificates for transgender Kansans. Kobach’s office has asked the federal court to nullify the agreement. The right to change gender markers on birth certificates was confirmed in 2019 as part of an agreement in a federal lawsuit. But legal authorities say the law can’t actually be used to ban transgender people from specific spaces, in part because there is no enforcement mechanism or penalty specified in the law.Īnother portion of the bill stipulates that any agency, office or organization that collects vital statistics has to identify the person as either male or female based on designation at birth. The language of the law suggests that people who don’t meet these requirements should be banned from female-specific places, such as locker rooms, bathrooms and crisis shelters. The law defines women as having the ability to produce eggs for reproduction and men as those whose reproductive systems are developed to fertilize eggs - a definition that conflicts with social and scientific definitions of gender. Republicans passed the law earlier this year, referring to it as a “women’s bill of rights.” In late April, they overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure. Kobach’s response: “She is violating her oath of office to uphold Kansas law. “While my administration and the attorney general’s office have had many conversations about the law, KDHE and KDOR disagree about its impacts on their operations and will instead keep in place their policies regarding gender markers on birth certificates and driver’s licenses,” Kelly said. Kelly, a Democrat who defeated Kobach, a Republican, in the 2018 governor’s race, said Thursday that state agencies would follow the advice of their own attorneys. Earlier this week, Kobach advised state agencies to stop changing gender markers on government documents and to revert any that have been changed. Government officials, attorneys and LGBTQ advocates have tried to decipher the vaguely worded law with varying results. ![]()
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