A meeting of the Kansas GOP State Committee – Photo: Republican Party of Kansas, via Facebook.
The Kansas Republican Party has approved a resolution to “oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
The party’s state committee endorsed the resolution on Saturday, while also saying the party recognizes the dignity of those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, reports The Wichita Eagle.
“God’s design for gender as determined by biological sex and not by self-perception,” the resolution states. It also notes the Kansas GOP’s opposition to efforts to surgically or hormonally alter an individual’s body to conform with “perceived gender identity.”
Eric Teetsel, the committee member that introduced the resolution and the president of the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, argued that the resolution was necessary in order to affirm certain principles that are supposed to guide the GOP.
“[U]ltimately, an ideology that says you can determine your own gender identity is broken and it’s going to lead to a lot of pain, and that’s why it’s important to bring us back to what we know to be true and good,” Teetsel told the Eagle.
The resolution was one of several approved during the state convention, including one, also proposed by Teetsel, that emphasizes the importance of “religious freedom.”
The official Republican Party platform is silent on transgender issues but does oppose same-sex marriage, saying “our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage.”
Teetsel notes that his resolution on human sexuality begins by affirming the dignity of LGBTQ people, something that, he says, shows it is not motivated by animus.
“Ultimately, we are motivated by love,” he said. “It is concern for the well-being of others that drives us to seek out what is true and not just for society, but for them personally.”
But Equality Kansas vehemently disagrees with that characterization of the resolution. The organization issued a statement saying that it was “incredibly disappointed” that Kansas Republicans had promoted “such an undignified and crass assault.”
“This is a cheap election year attack by Sam Brownback’s son-in-law, and yet another attempt to dehumanize those who do not fit inside the narrow world view of Brownback, his family, and his wing of the Republican party,” said Equality Kansas director Tom Witt.
The Kansas GOP, which historically was divided between ultra-conservatives and center-right moderates, has taken a hard-right turn in recent years on social issues, particularly under former Gov. Sam Brownback, who was confirmed last month as the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
During Brownback’s tenure, either the governor or the legislature made several moves to curb LGBTQ rights, whether it was Brownback repealing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ state employees, or the legislature passing a bill to allow on-campus organizations to turn away prospective members who are LGBTQ-identifying.
In 2016, the Kansas Senate also approved a resolution “supporting student privacy and safety” after the Obama administration issued guidance stating that transgender students should be treated according to their gender identity, including being allowed to use restrooms that match their gender identity.
A New York City subway rider was slashed in the face earlier this month by an unidentified assailant who took offense to him kissing his transgender partner. The attack occurred around 7:50 p.m. on January 10 aboard a southbound No. 6 train as it traveled through Manhattan.
According to police, the 28-year-old victim was kissing his partner when the suspect began shouting anti-gay slurs. The verbal abuse quickly escalated into a physical confrontation. During the argument, the suspect struck the victim with a sharp object, causing a deep laceration on the right side of his face, according to New York CW affiliate WPIX.
In late November, the University of Oklahoma placed Mel Curth on administrative leave after the transgender graduate teaching assistant gave a student a zero on an essay about gender roles.
The essay cited the Bible to defend traditional gender roles and described transgender people as "demonic." Curth and the course's instructor, Megan Waldron, said the paper failed to meet basic academic standards due to a lack of empirical evidence. Both noted that the paper cited no scholarly sources and failed to offer an evidence-based critique of the assigned article, which argued that children who do not conform to rigid gender stereotypes are more likely to face bullying and negative mental health outcomes.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to advance a bill that would imprison doctors for providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors and punish parents who consent to their child’s treatment.
The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), would impose prison sentences of up to 10 years on medical providers who recommend or prescribe puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery to transgender patients under 18. It would also criminalize parents who consent to their child’s treatment or transport them across state lines to obtain such care.
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