Trans KC residents say Missouri’s ‘bathroom bill’ would unfairly target them
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri House passed a bill that would punish government entities but it is not yet law.
- Kansas enacted a similar law in February that includes fines and misdemeanor penalties.
- Trans Kansas Citians report increased fear, isolation and safety challenges in daily life.
Trans Kansas Citians, sandwiched between two states that have enacted increasingly stricter laws restructuring trans rights, said they’re feeling increasing levels of fear and isolation in their daily lives as a result of recent state actions.
On Monday, the Missouri House passed a bill that would punish public schools, cities and any other government facility if it allowed someone to use a single-sex space that doesn’t correspond with their sex assigned at birth. It still needs to go through the Senate and Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe to become law.
Kansas passed a bill in February over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto that places similar restrictions on government entities, but also carries fines and misdemeanor offenses for people who use restrooms not consistent with their biological sex.
Both bills were passed with the justification that they would make sex specific spaces safer for women. But transgender Kansas Citians said it will make it harder for them to fulfill basic human needs in daily life.
“Going to the bathroom is an exercise in safety, in adaptability, in fear, already for me,” said Celeste, who asked The Star to withhold her last name out of fear she’ll lose her job.
Celeste said she already keeps mental notes on the gender neutral bathrooms in her day-to-day life to avoid conflict. When travelling across the state, she researches facilities with gender neutral bathrooms to avoid being targeted in public.
Celeste reported that she’s faced harassment in bathrooms and has been assaulted over her transgender identity.
Jude Shattuck, a transgender Kansas Citian, testified against the bill and said the new law is “truly a basic privacy violation.”
“It definitely impacts those like stops as I’m traveling for work,” Shattuck said. “Just generally, it makes something that is not a problem to anyone into a problem for people in this minority that I’m in.”
Cara Hines, a Kansas City-based activist, said that the state isn’t tackling legislation that will have a greater impact on women’s safety.
“Our state has some of the highest rates of maternal mortality and domestic interpersonal violence in the state, and they’re not spending any time focusing on things like that in the legislature, and instead are trying to police how people are perceived and what bathroom they can use,” Hines said.
Celeste and Shattuck shared their belief that the state is seeking ways to cast transgender people out of public life.
“I have no intention of moving. To be honest, it kind of made me dig my heels on the ground a little bit,” Shattuck said. “Missouri is my home, and it’s worth fighting for.”
