1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose any legislation similar to Kansas SB 244 and HB 2426, which effectively criminalize the existence of transgender people in public spaces. These bills represent a dangerous precedent that no state should follow. The Kansas legislation bans people from entering restrooms in publicly-owned buildings that deviate from their sex assigned at birth and creates a bounty system that empowers any citizen to interrogate members of the public about their genitals for monetary rewards. The bills also forcibly revoke state IDs from transgender people, requiring Kansas to invalidate legally issued birth certificates and driver's licenses. This puts trans Kansans' ability to travel, use identification, and potentially vote at risk. The legislative process itself was deeply undemocratic. Despite 200 people submitting opposition testimony against the ID provision, the House Committee on Judiciary used a gut and go method to strip and insert the contents into a shell bill that had passed in a different form. This circumvented public input entirely. As Isaac Johnson of Trans Lawrence Coalition stated, they are using overtly anti-democratic measures to pass this legislation because they know it is unpopular. The bounty provision violates the privacy of all citizens regardless of gender or sex. There are already countless reports of law enforcement and anti-trans actors confronting both trans and cisgender people for using the wrong bathroom. In one notable case, a cisgender woman was accosted in a Capitol Hill restroom by Representatives Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, who mistook her for Congresswoman Sarah McBride. Kansas State Representative Abigail Boatman, who is trans, noted that the ambiguity in the bill is intentional to stoke fear and confusion. As she said, I am not here to be a cause. I am here to be a legislator. I urge you to publicly oppose any similar legislation in our state and work to ensure that all constituents can exist safely in public spaces without fear of harassment, bounty hunters, or having their legal identification revoked.