The push against trans rights
As lawmakers in Kansas and Missouri have focused their attention on restricting transgender rights, most of the rhetoric has been about protecting children.
This is an argument that has long been used against the LGBTQ community, as I detailed in an earlier newsletter. And when I asked Missouri’s Republican senators about the efforts to restrict transgender rights in their home state, both responded by talking about kids.
“The allegations that have come forth, particularly at St. Louis Children’s Hospital Clinic, are very disturbing,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt. “And that’s certainly worthy of an investigation. And so I think we need to get to the bottom and that what’s happening so that it’s very disturbing that this is these are these are kids. These are permanent consequences.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, when asked specifically at legislation affecting transgender adults, like those determining which bathroom they can use, quickly brought the issue back to kids.
“I would say that any girl who is subject to a biological male taking their position on a team, threatening their records, being fired forced to like use the same locker room, it’s hard to believe we’re even having this conversation,” Hawley said. “When you talk to parents, at least in Missouri, they’re apoplectic about this. And it does not know party boundaries.”
But the issue has spilled beyond legislation affecting the health care and activities of transgender children.
On Thursday, the Kansas Legislature voted to implement a sweeping bill that would prevent transgender people from accessing single-sex spaces that don’t align with their sex at birth and would prevent them from changing their gender on their driver’s licenses, overriding a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
The law includes some of the most sweeping restrictions in the country as legislatures across the country have aimed to implement restrictions on transgender rights, bolstered by the electoral success of some conservative politicians who have made targeting LGBTQ rights a focal point of their campaigns, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican contender for president.
In Missouri, where there is also legislation pending to limit transgender rights, Attorney General Andrew Bailey attempted to implement a regulations that would require 15 separate hourly therapy sessions over 18 months before a person can start transgender care. Bailey’s rule is separate from the legislative efforts to pass restrictions.
The efforts put once again LGBTQ rights in the crosshairs of conservatives waging the culture war, less than a decade removed from historic U.S. Supreme Court rulings that some hoped would one day mean the end to discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Transgender Kansans told the Star they believe the legislation is intended to erase them from society.
“The fact that someone even had the balls to say this is something we should try to pass is big enough,” said Lane Rozin, a 19-year-old transgender man who attends the University of Kansas. “It shows that there are people in our government system that are trying to erase our identities.”
More from Missouri
As activists in Missouri are attempting to build support for a constitutional amendment to restore abortion rights in the state, lawmakers are attempting to make it more difficult for provisions to be added to the state constitution. Currently, it just takes a majority of Missourians approving a ballot measure to change the constitution. A bill that passed the Missouri Senate this week would complicate that rule and potentially dilute the voting power of St. Louis and Kansas City.
Here are headlines from across the state:
Ahead of possible abortion fight, Senate passes bill to make it harder to change constitution, Kacen Bayless
Judge temporarily halts Missouri transgender care restrictions from taking effect, Kacen Bayless
Hawley says he’s not interested in being vice president even if Trump asks in 2024, Daniel Desrochers
Claims that fueled GOP crackdown on trans care ‘unsubstantiated,’ university says, Jonathan Shorman and Kacen Bayless
Hawley says the FBI is anti-Catholic. How a divide in the Church became a flashpoint in Congress, Daniel Desrochers
And across Kansas
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is staying silent as two founders of a group called We Build the Wall were sentenced to prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors. Kobach was the attorney for the group and on its board of directors. The group’s leader was found guilty of using more than $350,000 of the donations for his own personal use.
Kobach silent as former We Build the Wall associates sentenced to prison for defrauding donors, Jonathan Shorman
KS will require abortion providers to tell patients pill is reversible through unproven method, Katie Bernard
Angering GOP-controlled Legislature, Kelly vetoes the most bills in 29 years, Jonathan Shorman and Katie Bernard
Kansas sports physicals will ask sex at birth after lawmakers restrict trans athletes, Katie Bernard
Kansas Legislature passes human smuggling law, overriding veto from Gov. Laura Kelly, Jonathan Shorman
The latest from Kansas City
In Kansas City …
White House pushes back after Parson accuses Biden of politicizing Ralph Yarl shooting, Daniel Desrochers
Kansas City lawyer joins Trump defense team for civil trial over rape claim by writer, Jonathan Shorman
Fans can show pride in Chiefs Kingdom at special NFL Draft events, Joseph Hernandez
Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@kcstar.com
Odds and ends
Equal Rights Amendment
“The Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment today, thus completing Congressional action on the amendment, which would prohibit discrimination based on sex by any law or action of any government— Federal, state or local.”
That was the first sentence from an article on the front page of the New York Times on March 22, 1972. But the Equal Rights Amendment was up for a vote in the Senate again this Thursday.
That’s because, after Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment, the effort to get approval from the 38 states — three-fourths of the states — necessary for the amendment to be added to the Constitution stalled in the 1970s, amid pressure from conservative activists like Missouri’s Phyllis Schlafly, who said the amendment would take away privileges for women.
Congress gave the amendment a deadline of 1982, but there weren’t enough states to ratify the amendment until 2020, missing the deadline by 38 years. The Department of Justice under former President Donald Trump advised that because the amendment missed the deadline, Congress would have to start over again.
On Thursday, instead of starting over again, the Senate voted on a resolution that removes the deadline for ratifying the amendment. In theory, it would enable the amendment to be added to the Constitution.
A contingent of Democrats, led in part by Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, marched from the House to the Senate on Thursday demanding passage.
It failed, which means an effort that began around 100 years ago during the suffragette movement will remain unfulfilled.
Debt ceiling
On Wednesday night, the House passed a bill to raise the debt limit that would reduce the country’s debt by more than $4 trillion over the next four years.
It won’t become law.
The bill was just the opening salvo in what will be a series of negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. Democrats came out in strong opposition to the bill this week, saying it would cut law enforcement jobs, benefits to veterans, meals for senior citizens and would make larger cuts to education.
Again, the bill won’t become law.
In order to pass, it will have to go through the Democratic-controlled Senate, where lawmakers are pushing for a “clean” debt ceiling bill. Raising the debt ceiling just allows the country to pay for things it already spent money on, it doesn’t authorize new spending. So Democrats are saying they can have a conversation about spending cuts with the budget bill, but they don’t want to have negotiations over a bill that simply allows the government to pay the money it already owes.
Still, the bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives, with four Republican lawmakers voting against it. There were originally more holdouts, including Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican. He signed onto the bill after it was changed to not eliminate ethanol tax credits approved in the Inflation Reduction Act. Once he signed on, he said “America deserved this legislation.”
“Our goal was to protect renewable fuel investments, ethanol and bio-diesel, and we achieved that through our negotiations with the Speaker,” Alford said in a press release. “As amended, I will be proudly voting ‘yes’ on this package and I urge my colleagues to do the same.”
In January, Alford told conservative outlet OANN that he would not vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“I am not for raising the debt ceiling,” Alford said, saying his constituents didn’t want to see the debt limit lifted.
Biden reelection campaign
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, was one of the first elected officials to endorse President Joe Biden when the former vice president and senator from Delaware launched his presidential bid to challenge then-President Donald Trump. Cleaver said he rode a bus in Iowa with former Secretary of State John Kerry and four other lawmakers and that the largest crowd they drew was around 12 people in Cedar Rapids.
Now, he wants to get the bus back together again.
“Biden is saying let’s finish the job,” Cleaver said. “He wants to build back better and I want him to build back better because that means Kansas City was gonna get some of the things that we were hoping for.”
Cleaver dismissed concerns about Biden’s age, saying he found the president to be sharp during his announcement.
“I’ve never heard anybody say ‘boy Nancy Pelosi is 83,’” Cleaver said.
I said that I had.
“But usually when people say that, they’re saying, her mind is so quick,” Cleaver said. “And all three of them same age, Hoyer, Clyburn, Pelosi and nobody out there would challenge them to debate. So the thing with Biden that hurts him, is he’s a stutter. And as a person whose whole life has been speaking, I know the impediments that can be caused by it.”
Hoyer, Clyburn and Pelosi gave up their leadership positions to younger Democrats this Congress.
Happy Friday
Read this about the type of politico who people associate with the worst of Washington. This weekend is the White House Correspondents Association dinner. The first course is a cured duck bacon salad, with red vein sorrel, shaved French radish, peppadews, Humboldt fog goat cheese, cranberry & apricot compote with an orange zested green goddess house made dressing, in case you were wondering. Listen to this song by Lana Del Rey.
Enjoy your weekend.
Looking for more?
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