Kansas lawmakers have passed a sweeping anti-trans bill that restricts which public restrooms and locker rooms transgender people may use.
The bill requires driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect a person’s assigned sex at birth and defines “gender” under Kansas law as biological sex determined at birth, including chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and internal and external genitalia.
Under the bill, Kansans would be barred from amending the gender marker on their original birth certificate, and driver’s licenses could only display a gender marker that aligns with a person’s assigned sex at birth, reports Topeka-based CBS affiliate WIBW.
The bill also directs state officials to invalidate any driver’s licenses that do not list a gender marker aligning with a person’s assigned sex at birth and to reissue licenses with the “correct” gender marker.
Last year, the Kansas Court of Appeals struck down a nearly identical 2023 law that required driver’s licenses to reflect a person’s assigned sex at birth.
As the original House measure was being debated, Republicans used a procedural maneuver known as “gut and go” — placing the contents of a House bill into a previously approved Senate bill — to add restrictions on which restrooms, locker rooms, or changing facilities transgender people may use in public buildings, reports the Kansas Reflector.
Under the restroom ban, Kansans would only be permitted to access facilities that match their assigned sex at birth. The measure does not prevent public buildings from offering gender-neutral, single-user restrooms or family restrooms.
Democrats objected to the procedural maneuver used to add the restroom ban, particularly after being told the Senate would not hold a hearing on the revised bill before voting on the House-added language, citing that process as justification for opposing the bill.
Supporters argue that official documents are intended to record a person’s biological gender and that the state has an interest in ensuring those records carry the “correct” gender marker. They also justify the restroom restrictions as necessary to protect the privacy of women and girls in public, multi-user restrooms.
“[Cisgender females] deserve environments that respect those boundaries without forcing them to negotiate privacy in moments when they should not have to,” said State Rep. Megan Steele (R-Manhattan).
Opponents argue that the bill is discriminatory, singles out transgender people for disparate treatment, and refuses to recognize their identities as valid.
“Trans Kansans are not a threat to anyone,” Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen (D-Topeka) said, according to WIBW. “There are a lot of people in Kansas who will be emboldened by this kind of legislation and other kinds of legislation to harass transgender people.”
The measure passed the Republican-dominated House by an 87-36 vote following six hours of debate, before clearing the Republican-controlled Senate, 30-9.
The bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. It remains unclear whether Kelly, who has vetoed anti-transgender legislation in past years, will veto it or allow it to become law without her signature, given that lawmakers may have enough votes to override a veto.
The LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD condemned passage of the bill, noting that it includes criminal penalties for governments, school districts, and public universities that fail to enforce the restroom ban, as well as for individuals who violate the ban by using gender-affirming restrooms.
“Transgender people, like all of us, deserve the dignity to be themselves and to be safe to go about their daily lives without harassment,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said. “Elected officials should start listening to the people and stop playing dangerous games with people’s lives.”
Ten people have been found guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, by using social media to spread false rumors that she was transgender and equating the nature of her relationship with her husband, who is 24 years her junior, to pedophilia.
The eight men and two women, ranging in age from 41 to 65 -- three of whom were tried in absentia -- were convicted of online harassment and handed sentences ranging from mandatory cyberbullying awareness training to an eight-month suspended prison term.
The court also fined each defendant 600 euros and ordered them to pay a combined 10,000 euros -- about $11,726 -- in compensation to the 72-year-old Macron, reports The New York Times.
As one of his final acts in office, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to distribute $2 million in "emergency funding" to roughly 20 organizations serving transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary New Yorkers.
The grants are intended to counter federal budget cuts and Trump administration efforts to block LGBTQ organizations -- particularly those serving transgender people -- from receiving federal funding, reports Gay City News.
The funding, the first of its kind in the nation, will be administered by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The money is intended to support community organizations providing services to gender-diverse communities, including "health and wellness, legal advocacy, youth and family support, safety and crisis response, community building, and economic empowerment," according to the release.
Speaking at a House GOP retreat, President Donald Trump warned that Democrats would seek to impeach him if they regain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
"f we don't win the midterms, it's just going to be -- I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me," Trump said. "I'll get impeached."
Trump was first impeached in 2019, after Democrats regained control of the House during his first term, over allegations that he withheld congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine to pressure its government into announcing investigations into his political rival, former President Joe Biden.
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