Kansas begins school sports season with new trans ban for girls programs in effect
A week into the fall season for Kansas’ high school sports Bill Faflick had yet to receive a single call from a parent, student or school about the state’s new law barring transgender athletes from girls’ sports.
“Whether you agree with the policy or disagree with the policy … we know it’s in place,” said Faflick, the executive director of the Kansas High School Sports and Athletics Association.
Kansas Republicans placed the policy front and center during the 2023 legislative session, finally passing a bill they argued would protect fair competition after two failed attempts. Missouri lawmakers passed a similar law, which formally takes effect this week.
When the Kansas policy passed opponents worried it would place a target on the back of all transgender students, and anyone who didn’t conform to traditional gender norms. Those concerns are heightened as fall competition starts and students return to the classroom.
“There are very few kids that this will actually impact … directly in their ability to play on a team,” Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, told reporters at an event celebrating school funding. “What it does though, to the psyche of kids and their families is something that’s very very difficult to measure, but we know it’s got to be difficult to be targeted that way.”
Prior to the law’s approval, the Kansas High School Sports Association dealt with requests from transgender students to compete on the team that matched their gender identity on a case by case basis. Last year, three students had obtained waivers and two were expected to graduate in the spring.
Now, when a student completes an annual physical to play sports, the physician has to check a box marking the student’s sex assigned at birth.
“There’s very few kids this impacts in terms of breadth, but, boy, when it does impact a kid it’s incredibly significant personally, so the depth is very significant for those kids and for their school community,” Faflick said. “This is not a kid in isolation, this is a high school community that needs to support the students that are in transition.”
In Missouri, a spokesperson for the high school sports association said the 11 students who had previously obtained waivers to compete on the team that matched their gender identity would receive notices that their waivers would be revoked.
“It’s going to lead to schools questioning individuals’ gender identity and taking steps that are really harmful and really constitutionally problematic to attempt to verify a person’s ability to play on a sports team using the sports ban as a reason for doing so,” said Sharon Brett, the legal director for the ACLU of Kansas. “We have not heard of that yet. It’s something we’re on the lookout for.”
Brett and others have expressed concerns about the ability for a parent or competitor to argue a student athlete should be pulled from competition for not being the right gender simply because that competitor looks less feminine or is athletically skilled.
If someone questions a student’s sex assigned at birth, Faflick said, he’ll direct schools to reference a student’s physical.
Though there haven’t been concerns brought to him yet, Faflick said he’s concerned about students losing opportunities because of the law.
“We want kids involved in activities because we know kids involved in activities are being prepared for success in school each and every day,” he said. “Any policy that we would have, or a law that would be in place that would eliminate those opportunities is always a concern.”
Brittany Jones, a lobbyist for the conservative Christian organization Kansas Family Voice, said she’s heard from student-athletes grateful for the new law, which they believe protects their opportunities to compete in high school, college and professionally.
“The fact that we in Kansas are protecting those rights encourages those women, it validates them and it gives them the opportunity and space to thrive in,” Jones said.
But state Rep. Heather Meyer, an Overland Park Democrat and mother to a transgender child, said she’s heard from confused and concerned parents as the law takes effect.
“I think maybe some families are just keeping their kids in the closet or not addressing their concerns with the schools yet because schools don’t have the answer,” Meyer said. “It allows for more scrutiny of children who may be questioning or may be different. Even if we’re talking about the stereotypical tomboy.”
“It’s just affecting the mental health of our kids and our families and I think that people are terrified.”
The law, she said, places a target on the back of even students who are not trying to compete by sending a message that it is OK to single out students who are different. The law, she said, is stifling at a pivotal age for students.
“It doesn’t allow for children to explore who they are naturally, and we all do that through adolescence,” Meyer said.
Before lawmakers approved the statewide ban, recent Gardner Edgerton graduate Elizabeth Fiedler watched as her school board approved a policy prohibiting transgender children from using their preferred restrooms or participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
“While many may doubt it, there is a large LGBTQ community at Gardner Edgerton,” she said. “The idea that trans people are just taking over high school sports teams is ludicrous. No one is advocating for someone to just say, ‘Hey, I’m a woman so I should be on the women’s sports team.’”
Gardner Edgerton High School became a mini-case study locally in how such a ban could change the atmosphere inside school walls and locker rooms. Fiedler and many others protested the decision, arguing that it hurts transgender students and their mental health — when the group already is at a higher risk of suicide.
Fiedler said while “several trans people may not be on sports teams,” the debate has had a chilling effect on LGBTQ students and sparked discussions about the rules in other activities.
“In our choir, instead of having robes, we have dresses for women and another outfit for the men,” she said. “Because this is based off of sex assigned at birth and not the clothing that people would be most comfortable in, it leads several students to feeling alienated when there are simpler, gender neutral options available.”
As the statewide policy — and another law defining man and woman in state law by sex assigned at birth — takes effect, LGBTQ rights group Equality Kansas is holding events aimed at helping Kansans understand the perspectives of transgender individuals in their community.
“We can’t change the law as much as we want to right now because this is the law,” Taryn Jones, a lobbyist for Equality Kansas, said. “Education is a big piece.”
Brett, with the ACLU, said the organization is still considering litigation against the law. But in the meantime, she said, the law leaves a serious impact on Kansas kids.
“This legislation, although intended to target trans people, has a profound impact on all kids trying to play sports because it’s teaching them lessons about who is valued and who is not valued in the world,” Brett said. “Harmful bills like this have incredible effects on kids and how they view their peers and how they view their own identities and whether they feel safe expressing a variety of identities to people that they should trust and respect within schools.”
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 28, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
