TOPEKA — Sen. Renee Erickson is advocating passage of a bill by the Kansas Legislature to forbid individuals declared male at birth who later transitioned to female from participating in women’s sports programs at the elementary, high school and college levels.
Erickson, a Wichita Republican and retired school principal, is sponsor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. It was the lawmaker’s response to an executive order issued by President Joe Biden declaring administration policy was to support equal treatment under the law and prevent discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Biden’s order also says children should be able to learn without “worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room or school sports.”
“The purpose is to ensure fairness and opportunities for women competing in sports,” Erickson said.
Last year, lawmakers in Kansas and more than a dozen states introduced bills crafted to base eligibility for organized athletic events on a person’s gender assignment at birth. A Kansan in the U.S. Senate introduced comparable federal legislation related to sports and gender identity. Meanwhile, four Kansas House members last week sponsored a bill creating the felony crime of providing medical services to transgender children.
Thomas Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said the bill proposed by Erickson appeared philosophically bound to a measure introduced in 2020 by Wichita GOP Rep. Michael Capps, who sought to mandate Kansas high schools rely on a student’s gender at birth to determine eligibility for interscholastic activities.
“Capps didn’t have the best interests of children at heart,” Witt said. “I think Senator Erickson is following in Michael Capps’ tradition.”
Capps didn’t get his bill out of a House committee in 2020, perhaps due to COVID-19 abbreviating the session, and he wasn’t around the Capitol to reintroduce it in 2021.
In August, Capps lost his primary election race and left office in January. He’s embroiled in scandal involving attempts to discredit Brandon Whipple, who was elected Wichita mayor, and for engaging in a conspiracy with other elected officials to mislead the public about attacks on Whipple.
