TOPEKA — Intersex women and those born with sexual development conditions would be classified as disabled and required to use separate bathrooms and locker rooms from both women and men under legislation being considered by Kansas lawmakers.
This designation was added as an amendment to Senate Bill 180, otherwise known as a “women’s bill of rights.” Lawmakers in the House Health and Human Services Committee debated and passed the bill in a little more than 11 minutes Thursday.
The bill states that separate accommodations based on biological sex aren’t unequal, and that biological women sometimes need women-only social, educational, athletic and other spaces to ensure safety. The bill would include domestic violence shelters, restrooms and locker rooms as female-only spaces.
Critics have said the bill is a blatant attempt to ban transgender women from women’s spaces.
In its original form, the legislation defined females as people with biological reproductive systems developed to produce ova, a definition that excluded intersex women and alienated women without ovaries.
To address the concerns, Rep. John Eplee, R-Atchison, prepared an amendment to apply to intersex people. The amendment states that individuals born with sex development differences or disorders would be provided legal protections and accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Eplee said his goal with the amendment was to give people who fall under the amendment a separate space from men’s and women’s spaces. Eplee said the amendment came about after he listened to testimony asking lawmakers in charge of the bill to consider how it would impact people who didn’t fall into binary gender roles. Eplee said the amendment was aimed at providing privacy and a sense of safety for these individuals.
“It would provide security for them for those functions that relate to using the bathroom and changing clothes for an athletic event, so there’s privacy issues addressed,” Eplee said. “That’s the whole purpose of the amendment for nonbinary folks.”
Eplee said they would be classified as disabled to offer them protections.
“People that are disabled do have that recognition and that ability now,” Eplee said. “This is just to say this is somewhat of an expansion of that narrative, because certainly not all intersex folks are disabled. But some are, and this is just to reaffirm that.”
Eplee said he didn’t have all the answers on what the bill entailed, but he thought it would help set a standard in the state of Kansas to give men and women security and privacy in bathroom facilities, lockers and athletic endeavors.
Other lawmakers discussed the disability aspect of the amendment during the Thursday meeting.
Rep. Bill Clifford, R-Garden City, identified Turner Syndrome as an example of a sex development condition. The syndrome occurs because one of the X chromosomes is either missing or partially present. Less than half of women with the syndrome have extra folds of skin on the neck. Several other syndrome indicators include stalled sexual development and ovarian issues.
Clifford said women with Turner Syndrome could be embarrassed to change in dressing rooms with other women.
“A person in that state, I don’t think, would want to undress in front of even fellow females,” Clifford said.
