TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas enacted presumably probably the most sweeping transgender rest room legislation within the U.S. on Thursday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure with out having a transparent thought of how their new legislation shall be enforced.
The vote within the Home was 84-40, giving supporters precisely the two-thirds majority they wanted to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s motion. The vote within the Senate on Wednesday was 28-12, and the brand new legislation will take impact July 1.
Seven different states have enacted legal guidelines stopping transgender individuals from utilizing the restrooms related to their gender identities, however most of them apply to colleges. The Kansas legislation applies additionally to locker rooms, prisons, home violence shelters and rape disaster facilities.
The Kansas legislation is completely different than different states’ legal guidelines in that it legally defines female and male based mostly on an individual’s reproductive anatomy at start and declares that “distinctions between the sexes” in bogs and different areas serves “the essential governmental targets of defending the well being, security and privateness.”
However the legislation doesn’t create a brand new crime, impose legal penalties or fines for violations and even say particularly that an individual has a proper to sue over a transgender individual utilizing a facility aligned with their gender identification. Many supporters acknowledged earlier than it handed that they hadn’t thought of how it is going to be administered.