Kansas Republicans’ response to voters electing a trans woman to the state legislature: pass a bill that would ban every trans person in the state from using the correct bathroom—including their new colleague.
Two weeks ago, the Kansas House swore in Abi Boatman—a Democrat, Air Force veteran, and transgender woman. On Wednesday, after six hours of debate, her colleagues passed a bathroom bill 87-36 in the House and 28-12 in the Senate, as the Kansas Reflector reported. Both margins are veto-proof. Gov. Laura Kelly will veto it. If Republicans hold together for the override, it takes effect July 1.
“I have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society,” Boatman told her colleagues. “From the bottom of my heart, I hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.”
The timing is not subtle. Boatman was sworn in January 12th. The bathroom provisions were added to an unrelated ID bill on January 27th, with no public hearing. Republicans used a procedural maneuver called “gut and go” to bypass committee review, then suspended the rules to force an immediate floor vote.
Most bathroom bills are theater. This one has teeth.
I’ve been tracking these laws for years, and most are unenforceable. When Wyoming’s ban took effect last July, a trans woman walked into the women’s room at the State Capitol as a test. The highway patrol officer nearby said “OK.” She left. Nothing happened.
Florida’s law actually criminalizes violations, but when Marcy Rheintgen deliberately broke it at the Florida Capitol last March, the charges were dropped—prosecutors missed a filing deadline. The state didn’t want to fight that fight.
Kansas looked at these enforcement failures and decided to privatize it.
The bill creates a “private right of action” allowing anyone to sue trans people they encounter in bathrooms. As Erin Reed first reported, the provision doesn’t appear to limit itself to government buildings—it could extend to private businesses. Reed’s analysis found that this would make Kansas the first state to effectively ban trans people from bathrooms everywhere, enforced not by police but by bounty hunters.
This will hurt cis women too
Bathroom bills don’t change trans people’s behavior—we’ve been navigating hostile bathrooms our whole lives. What these laws do is encourage harassment of anyone who doesn’t look gender-conforming enough.
Last August in Minnesota, an 18-year-old named Gerika Mudra—a biracial lesbian, not trans—was followed into the women’s room at Buffalo Wild Wings by a server who banged on her stall door and demanded she leave. Mudra ended up unzipping her hoodie to prove she had breasts. In February, a Black woman named Kalaya Morton was confronted by sheriff’s deputies in an Arizona Walmart bathroom who told her she “looked like a man.” In March, a 6’4” woman in Florida was verbally assaulted in a Walmart bathroom by a man who assumed she was trans because of her height—then fired when she reported it. In 2022, a woman in Las Vegas was berated in a casino bathroom for having short hair.
None of these women were trans. All of them were harassed because years of bathroom panic has trained people to see gender nonconformity as a threat. Kansas wants to add a financial incentive.
What happens next
The override vote could happen this week. Republicans have the numbers, but some may balk at a provision this poorly drafted—nobody in the debate seemed clear on how enforcement would actually work.
Boatman understood what this is really about. “What this bill is about,” she told her colleagues, “is sending a very clear message to people who are transgender that you are not welcome and you are not safe here.”
The legislature heard her. They’re moving forward anyway.
If you’re in Kansas, your legislators need to hear from you before the override vote. If you’re not, remember: this is a test case. Whatever works here, they’ll try everywhere.
I recently left my position at Media Matters to pursue other projects. Stories like this one—connecting the dots between legislative maneuvers, historical patterns, and what’s actually coming—take time to report and write. The mainstream press will cover the vote count. They won’t tell you about the bounty provision, or the cis women already being harassed, or why this bill is designed differently than the ones that failed before.
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This is exactly why I moved out of both KS and MO. It was not safe for my trans daughter. For those not from those areas, what you need to understand is this is part of the onslaught that has been going on there for at least 3-4 years. On the MO side, last Jan 2025 the GOP majority floated 34+ specifically anti-trans bills. I don't remember how many KS had, but the reason is the federal gov. is making these states testing grounds (like they did in FL) to roll this anti-human crap out to all states.
Cruel panic politics sacrificing trans lives for power.