By Megan Henry | COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two anti-transgender bills have recently been moving through the Ohio legislature.  

House Bill 8 would force educators to out a student’s sexuality to their parents, require public schools to inform parents about sexuality content materials ahead of time and give them the option to request alternative instructions. The bill passed in the House over the summer and has had a few hearings in the Senate Education Committee — meaning it will likely be voted on soon. 

House Bill 183 would ban transgender students from using the bathroom and locker room that matches up with their gender identity. The bill was recently voted out of committee but hasn’t made its way to the House floor yet and doesn’t seem like it will anytime soon. 

“We haven’t formally discussed it and it won’t be on the floor next week,” said Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill.

The Ohio House has four more meetings scheduled in May and June before the lawmakers go on summer break. 

Having these bills go through the legislative process — even if they don’t pass — is damaging to the LGBTQ community, said Carson Hartlage, a member of the Board of TransOhio. 

“They’re both framed as attempts to protect students … but it doesn’t seem like these bills are actually fixing any real problems,” Hartlage said. “They’re really just creating really harmful conversations around trans kids and a lot of them don’t really seem all that practical or enforceable. … It just creates a spotlight where we don’t really need one and points out kids or individual schools or things like that don’t really need that kind of negative attention.”

Bathroom bills 

Bradie Anderson, 14, is worried someone will police which bathroom she uses at school. 

“There’s no problem with her in the bathrooms,” Bradie’s mom Anne Anderson said. “There’s just not. They’re looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

The Anderson family lives in Mentor, but they have considered moving because of the various anti-LGBTQ bills in the Statehouse. 

“People don’t want to stick around here,” Anderson said. 

Ten states have laws on the books that limit access to bathrooms that line up with gender identity in K-12 schools, according to the UCLA Williams Institute 2024 report on the impact of anti-transgender legislation on youth. An estimated 34,800 transgender students ages 13-17 live in those states. 

Those laws have been challenged in Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho and Tennessee. Seventeen states, including Ohio, have bathroom bill bans pending in the legislature.   

Ohio’s bill would also ban schools from allowing students to share overnight accommodations with the opposite sex, and it would prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities. 

Parental bill of rights 

Anderson worries about the LGBTQ students whose parents don’t support them. 

“Those are the kids that are going to be completely crushed by House Bill 8,” she said. “House Bill 8 would be very dangerous to children that want to keep a low profile and feel that they can trust someone in their school because they obviously don’t feel safe coming out to their parents, that’s the issue.”

There were 62 parental-rights bills in 24 states in 2023, according to FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. 

Bills have been signed into law in Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Louisiana. 

Ohio’s bill would prohibit any sexuality content from being taught to students in kindergarten through third grade. 

The bill defines sexuality content as “oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.”

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Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

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The preceding article was previously published by the Ohio Capital Journal an is republished with permission.

The Ohio Capital Journal is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to connecting Ohioans to their state government and its impact on their lives. The Capital Journal combines Ohio state government coverage with incisive investigative journalism, reporting on the consequences of policy, political insight and principled commentary.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

JACKSON, Miss. – Republican lawmakers in Mississippi working to close out their 2024 legislative session were unable to vote on two measures that would have restricted the legal rights of transgender people in the state.

The Associated Press reported that House and Senate leaders failed to agree on compromise versions two bills, one bill that would have restricted transgender people’s use of bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings, including university dormitories. The other would have specified that sex is defined at birth, and that “there are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female.”

The language of each measure would have had to be the same for the final versions to be passed and sent on to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. In February of 2023 Reeves signed into law HB1125, a bill banning health care treatments for gender dysphoria for transgender youth, prohibiting doctors from providing such care and stripping parents of the right to guide medical decisions for their own children.

Reeves said at the time he signed the bill, which bars puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors, because “there is a dangerous movement spreading across America today.”

“It’s advancing under the guise of a false ideology, and pseudo science is being pushed onto our children through radical activist, social media and online influencers, and it’s trying to convince our children that they are in the wrong body,” Reeves said at a news conference after he signed the bill.

In 2021, the governor signed legislation to ban trans athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams.

WASHINGTON – Four Republicans state attorneys general have sued the Biden-Harris administration over the U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX policies that were finalized April 19 and carry anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students in public schools.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday, which is led by the attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee, follows a pair of legal challenges from nine Republican states on Monday — all contesting the administration’s interpretation that sex-based discrimination under the statute also covers that which is based on the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The administration also rolled back Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely perceived as biased in favor of the interests of those who are accused.

“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.”

“Florida is suing the Biden administration over its unlawful Title IX changes,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”

After announcing the finalization of the department’s new rules, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters, “These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights.”

The new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, a question that is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.

LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups praised the changes. Lambda Legal issued a statement arguing the new rule “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” adding that it “appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity.”

GEORGETOWN, Del. – Salvator “Sal” Seeley, who served as an official with the Rehoboth Beach, Del., CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ community center for 20 years, was sentenced on April 5 by a Sussex County Superior Court judge to nine months in prison and to pay $176,000 in restitution to the organization.

The sentencing took place about five weeks after Seeley pleaded guilty to a charge of Theft in Excess of $50,000 for allegedly embezzling funds from CAMP Rehoboth, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice told the Washington Blade.

Seeley’s guilty plea came shortly after a grand jury, at the request of prosecutors, indicted him on the felony theft charge following an investigation that found he had embezzled at least $176,000 from the nonprofit LGBTQ organization.

“Salvatore C. Seeley, between the 27th day of February 2019 and the 7th day of September 2021, in the County of Sussex, State of Delaware, did take property belonging to CAMP Rehoboth, Inc., consisting of United States currency and other miscellaneous property valued at more than $50,000, intending to appropriate the same,” the indictment states.

“The State recommended a sentence of two years of incarceration based on the large-scale theft and the impact to the non-profit organization,” Delaware Department of Justice spokesperson Caroline Harrison told the Blade in a statement.

“The defense cited Seeley’s lack of a record and gambling addiction in arguing for a probationary sentence,” the statement says. “Seeley was sentenced in Superior Court to a nine-month prison term and to pay a total of $176,000 in restitution for the stolen funds,” Harrison says in the statement.

Neither Seeley nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.

At the time of Seeley’s indictment in February, CAMP Rehoboth released a statement saying it first discovered “financial irregularities” within the organization on Sept. 7, 2021, “and took immediate action and notified state authorities.” The statement says this resulted in the investigation of Seeley by the state Department of Justice as well as an internal investigation by CAMP Rehoboth to review its “financial control policies” that led to an updating of those policies.

“As we have communicated from day one, CAMP Rehoboth has fully cooperated with law enforcement,” the statement continues. “At its request, we did not speak publicly about the investigation while it was ongoing for fear it would jeopardize its integrity,” according to the statement. “This was extremely difficult given our commitment to transparency with the community about day-to-day operations during the recent leadership transition.”

The statement was referring to Kim Leisey, who began her job as CAMP Rehoboth’s new executive director in July of 2023, while the Seeley investigation had yet to be completed, following the organization’s process of searching for a new director. It says Seeley left his job as Health and Wellness Director of CAMP Rehoboth in September of 2021 after working for the organization for more than 20 years.

“Mr. Seeley’s actions are a deep betrayal to not only CAMP Rehoboth but also the entire community we serve,” the statement says.

By Amelia Ferrell Knisely | CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a brief in support of the female middle school student-athletes who publicly protested a transgender athlete competing in their track and field competition.

The transgender athlete has been permitted to compete due to a recent federal appeals court ruling. 

Five students who forfeited their shot-put competition April 18 in protest have now been barred from competing in that event at their next track and field meet, according to a new release from the AG’s office. 

Four of the five students, through their parents, filed suit.

“Their actions at the earlier track meet were not disruptive or aggrandizing. They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision,” Morrisey, a Republican, wrote in the amicus brief filed April 26. 

Appeals court strikes down West Virginia trans athlete ban

The girls’ competition forfeiture followed a federal appeals court ruling in favor of West Virginia teen Becky Pepper-Jackson, a trans girl who uses puberty blocking medication. The girl sued the state over its law barring trans athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams in public schools and colleges. 

The law doesn’t ban trans males from competing on boys’ or mens’ teams.

The federal appeals court ruling only blocked the state’s transgender sports ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case; it did not overturn the state law in its entirety. 

The AG announced last week that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on if the state can enforce its transgender athlete ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case. 

Morrisey is currently running for governor in a tight Republican primary race ahead of the May election. 

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Amelia is an investigative reporter for West Virginia Watch. Her coverage regularly focuses on poverty, child welfare, social services and government.

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The preceding article was previously published by West Virginia Watch and is republished with permission.

Nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent journalism not hidden behind a paywall. Mountaineers are always free, and so is West Virginia Watch.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

STATESBORO, Ga. – Several hundred students and supporters gathered in the central atrium of the Russell Union student center at Georgia Southern University (GSU) on Monday protesting the suspension of an LGBTQ+ inclusion training program, Safe Space, to the relocation of health care resource listings from a GSU public website.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Ellen Murphy, a grad student, organized the demonstration along with a handful of others, including members of Georgia Southern’s LGBTQ student organization, the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Murphy and other protestors, who were joined in solidarity by a handful of university administrators aimed to send a message to university administration after they suspended the LGBTQ+ initiatives, removing “information about services, including therapy groups for LGBTQ+ students, training to educate faculty/staff about LGBTQ+ identities (ie, Safe Space/Zone), medical treatments for transgender students, career resources, LGBTQ+ symbolism, and diversity statements from the university website.”

Georgia Southern administrator Dominique A. Quarles told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the Safe Space training was paused because a compliance review of University System of Georgia human resources administrative practices found the program violated recent policy revisions.

The university is exploring alternative approaches to restore Safe Space or to offer similar training that doesn’t violate University System policy, Quarles told the AJC. The timeline for the reboot is the fall semester, which begins Aug. 14.

In a letter to GSU, Murphy and other protestors claimed that “pride flags were promptly removed from the shelves of the university bookstore, and adjustments were made to programming for upcoming events for LGBTQ+ students.” This included students being given notice that “drag events would no longer be permitted on campus.”

The letter also highlighted that GSU President Kyle Marrero had ordered the removal of a poster promoting gender-affirming care in the school’s counseling center.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pointed out that the protest “differed in tone and tenor from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening at campuses across the country.” Organizers took steps during the planning process to ensure participants would “act in alignment with our values.”

Related:

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz | ASBURY PARK, N.J. – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and Garden State Equality sent letters to 16 school districts across New Jersey this week urging them to reinstate a policy they say protects transgender youth. 

The groups say without this policy — known as policy 5756 — not only are districts open to legal liability, but students and families may believe their schools are not safe and welcoming environments. The policy outlines responsibilities districts have to protect LGBTQ students under state and federal law. 

“School administrators must do everything they can to protect trans kids. As LGBTQ+ rights face renewed threats across the country, New Jersey has a responsibility to lead by example and ensure that students in our state feel safe, supported, and respected,” ACLU-NJ staff attorney Elyla Huertas said in a statement.

The policy, which is not mandatory, says school officials should have open but confidential discussions with their transgender students to ascertain the students’ preferences on their chosen names, pronouns, and parental communications. It was introduced in 2018 after a law signed by then-Gov. Chris Christie directed state education officials to create a policy regarding transgender students.

It came under fire last year when state Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office filed civil rights complaints against four school districts that sought to implement policies requiring school officials to tell parents about the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBTQ students. Platkin critics said his office was improperly trampling on their rights to know personal details about their children. After state officials conceded during those court fights that policy 5756 was not mandatory, a handful of school districts repealed it.   

“At a time when we are seeing attacks against LGBTQ+ students proliferate throughout the state and country, showing your students that you are protecting them is crucial for their ability to feel safe, supported, and respected in the school environment,” the letter states.

Sparta is among the school districts that received the letter. Its school board president, Kurt Morris, told the New Jersey Monitor that the ACLU-NJ’s concerns are “unfounded” because the district readopted the policy at its December 2023 meeting. Officials from other districts did not respond to requests for comment. 

A letter also went to Union Township’s schools. The district’s board president, Cortney Dominianni-Smith, said school officials there agree with the ACLU that transgender students, like all students, should be treated respectfully and in a nondiscriminatory manner.

“The District has numerous policies protecting the rights of all students, including transgender students and guaranteeing them equal access to all programs and opportunities in the Union Township Schools,” she said.

Studies show that LGBTQ+ youth face higher rates of bullying and harassment at school, and are more likely to be alienated from their families or communities. LGBTQ+ children are more likely to experience housing instability, and are four times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their straight and cisgender peers.

“All of the data show affirming schools are a lifeline for LGBTQ+ students,” said Lauren Albrecht, Garden State Equality’s director of advocacy and organizing. “So when schools don’t know — or outright reject research-backed, educator-approved, and, until recently, uncontroversial guidelines for — how to meet the well-documented needs of these students, it isn’t hyperbole to say lives are at risk.”

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Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, a New Jersey native and former Trenton statehouse reporter for NJ.com, shined a spotlight on the state’s crumbling unemployment system and won several awards for investigative reporting from the New Jersey Press Association. She was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for her report on PetSmart’s grooming practices, which was also recognized by the New York Press Club. Sophie speaks Spanish and is proud to connect to the Latinx community through her reporting.

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The preceding article was previously published by the New Jersey Monitor and is republished with permission.

New Jersey Monitor provides fair and tough reporting on the issues affecting New Jersey, from political corruption to education to criminal and social justice. We strive to hold powerful people accountable and explain how their actions affect New Jerseyans from Montague to Cape May.

New Jersey Monitor, PO Box 6843, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MOMBASA, Kenya — The queer community in Kenya can breathe a sigh of relief after a Mombasa court on Monday ruled clerics, politicians, and anti-LGBTQ+ groups cannot hold homophobic protests or engage in incitement.

The Mombasa High Court’s ruling, however, is temporary until July 24 when the court in Kenya’s second-largest city determines a petition on the issue.

Two petitioners — Mr. JM and the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation — last October sued Police Inspector General Japhet Koome for allowing religious leaders and lobby groups to hold homophobic protests whenever a court rules in favor of the LGBTQ+ community.

The petitioners’ effort to demand a ban on anti-LGBTQ+ protests in Kenya was in response to a series of homophobic demonstrations, particularly in Mombasa, after the Supreme Court last September affirmed an earlier decision that allowed the National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission to register as an NGO. 

Mombasa High Court Judge Olga Sewe in her Monday ruling also directed the petitioners and the respondents, who include Koome, two anti-LGBTQ+ activists and a national lobby group dubbed the “Anti-LGBTQ Movement” that organized protests, to file their witness lists and counter statements within 14 days of the July hearing. 

“Pending the hearing and determination of this petition, this Honorable Court (does) hereby issue a conservatory order restraining the 2nd and 5th Respondents from calling on or inciting members of the public to carry out extra-judicial killing, lynching, punishing, stoning, forcible conversion, or any other means of harming LGBTQ+ identifying persons and their homes,” Sewe stated. 

She also stopped the “Anti-LGBTQ movement,” Koome and any state agency from any attempted “expulsion from Kenya or any party of Kenya of LGBTQ+ identifying persons or closure of organizations serving LGBTQ+ identifying persons.” 

The court’s directives come after the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation led a protest on April 11 against the “anti-LGBTQ Movement”‘s invasion of Mvita Clinic in Mombasa that “hateful misinformation” reportedly sparked because the facility also serves queer people.  

“Mvita Clinic, like all healthcare providers, serves the entire community,” CMRSL stated. “Targeting them for LGBTQ+ inclusion is discriminatory and an attack on the basic right to health. Everyone deserves access to healthcare, and we urge an end to the spread of lies. Let’s promote inclusivity and ensure Mvita Clinic remains a safe space for all.”

CMRSL in response to Osewe’s ruling said it was a “major win for safety and equality in Kenya” because it allows the LGBTQ+ people to live with “greater peace of mind.” 

The Initiative for Equality and Non-Discrimination, an LGBTQ+ rights group, meanwhile lauded the court’s decision as a reprieve to homophobic attacks on the queer community. 

“There is some reprieve given the security incidents we witnessed during the protests on Sept. 15 last year,” INEND Communications Officer Melody Njuki told the Washington Blade.

“We had rescued LGBTQ+ folks in Mombasa, Kilifi, and Lamu, due to security incidents caused by the hatred the ‘Anti-LGBTQ movement’ mongered and the calling of violence towards people associated with the queer group and those identifying as members,” she added. 

PEMA Kenya, a Mombasa-based gender and sexual minority organization, also applauded the court’s temporary injunction, describing them as timely in protecting the LGBTQ+ community against all forms of homophobic attacks. 

“We welcome the ruling and we believe it will impact our members who for some time felt robbed of the freedom to express themselves,” PEMA Kenya director Ishmael Baraka told the Blade. 

The Nature Network, a rights organization for refugees living in Kenya, also welcomed the Monday ruling which it termed “a positive step showing the courts’ commitment to upholding human rights for all.”

“Anti-LGBTQ Movement” Chair Salim Karama, however, declined to respond to the Blade’s questions about the ruling until determination of the petition’s status. He noted the organization is waiting for their lawyer to speak with them about the decision and the filing of counter statements that Sewe ordered.

As LGBTQ+ rights groups seek the queer community’s protection in Kenyan courts, parliament, on the other hand in is set to consider a petition that notes what it describes as the proliferation of homosexuality in the country.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula on Feb. 27 referred the petition to the relevant parliamentary committee for inquiry after MP Ali Mohamed, a member of the ruling party and a vocal LGBTQ+ rights opponent, presented it in the National Assembly, the lower house of the Kenyan parliament, on behalf of a group of more than 70 Kenyans and religious organizations opposed to homosexuality.    

By Erin Reed | TOPEKA, Kan. – On Monday, the Kansas Legislature met to vote on Senate Bill 233, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and impose strict restrictions on social transitions in any publicly funded buildings, including schools.

The Legislature had previously passed the bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. Republicans, who had enough votes to override the veto, were expected to do so and ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

However, at the last moment, two Republicans, Representatives Susan Concannon and Jesse Borjon, unexpectedly broke ranks and voted to sustain the veto, preventing the bill from being signed into law.

Representative Concannon, who had previously voted in favor of the bill, reversed her decision and stepped forward to explain why, stating, “We hear of bullying and ask authorities to make it stop. We hear about mental health, about suicide, and ask why. We’re not listening to the impacted youth. Government involvement is not the answer. I voted for this bill in the past due to concerns about the surgery. With further consideration, this bill is vague beyond the surgery. These decisions belong between the team of professionals and the parents. The youth need our help, not government overreach. For all those who reached out, I hear you, and vote to sustain the governor’s veto.”

See her speech and the failure of the bill’s passage here:

Kansas has been a lightning rod for anti-trans legislation in recent years, and the defeat of a gender-affirming care ban in the state is likely to be seen as a big surprise among those following anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide.

Previously, Kansas Republicans had passed a bill banning transgender individuals from bathrooms and ending legal recognition of their gender identities. This led Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to force transgender people to have their driver’s licenses and birth certificates reversed.

That law placed Kansas among the states with some of the harshest laws toward transgender people in the United States, leading some to view the passage of a gender-affirming care ban for youth as a foregone conclusion.

However, recent months have cast doubt on the willingness of Republicans nationwide to continue targeting transgender people using the legislative process, at least prior to the upcoming election, where such positions may be seen as ideologically extreme.

Several other states that have led the charge in legislation targeting transgender and LGBTQ+ people failed to pass any significant anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ+ legislation this year, including Florida, West Virginia, Georgia, and Iowa.

In a recent interview with Casey Parks of The Washington Post, Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation stated, “We’re finding this to be sort of a lightning rod issue…I think there is some legislative will to try to back off a little bit and possibly pump the brakes on what had been previously a more aggressive approach.”

Sensing such shifts, there has also been more effort in lobbying centrist and conservative legislators while appealing to values that resonate with conservatives, such as control of one’s health care, privacy rights, and personal liberty. One such group is GRACE For America, an organization that describes itself as focusing on “the movable middle” and “the middle right” in outreach and education.

A recent video from the group, for instance, features a combat veteran who speaks about his advocacy for his own transgender child. When asked about the Kansas vote, a member of the organization stated, “We fully support these brave Republican legislators in Kansas for exemplifying the values of liberty, respect, and dignity—not just for transgender people but for parents and families who understand that decisions on health care belong with them and not government officials. Their actions demonstrate that transgender rights can be bipartisan, and we are grateful to see more Republicans adopting this approach and call on others to learn from these examples.”

One of the major groups in Kansas doing such outreach has been Equality Kansas, which was part of a coalition of statewide organizations lobbying the legislature to sustain the veto. These organizations include the ACLU of Kansas, Kansas Interfaith Action, Loud Light Civic Action, Mainstream, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, Trust Women Foundation, and Transformations.

Collectively, they led thousands of phone calls and emails to legislators in the state. Equality Kansas responded to the defeat, stating, “We are relieved that the House Republicans took time to listen to trans folks and take a step back to look at what is going on—that SB 233 and bills like it are founded in hate, not in fact. We need and will continue to work to engage Kansas community members and educate legislators.”

Kansas Senate overrides governor’s veto on anti-trans care bill

Had the bill passed, it would have been one of the most extreme bills targeting transgender youth in the United States. It not only would have banned surgery for trans teens, an exceedingly rare occurrence, but also hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Moreover, it would have barred state employees from “promoting social transition.” Social transition usually includes simple things such as pronouns, names, hairstyles, and clothing.

Many opposed to the bill interpreted it as potentially having far-reaching consequences for any teens who wished to go by different pronouns or names in schools, and could potentially have forbidden state employees from recognizing such transitions or expressions of gender identity.

Now with Republican defections, this bill will not become law in Kansas, giving Kansans who live under some of the harshest anti-trans laws in the United States some reprieve when it comes to their medical care.

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Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her pronouns) and researcher who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and helps people become better advocates for their queer family, friends, colleagues, and community. Reed also is a social media consultant and public speaker.

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The preceding article was first published at Erin In The Morning and is republished with permission.

By Sara Wilson | DENVER, Colo. – Colorado voters could be asked to amend the state constitution this fall to remove language against same-sex marriages.

Even though civil unions for same-sex marriage became legal in the state in 2013 — and same-sex marriages became legal nationwide in 2015 with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling — the Colorado constitution retains language that states, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”

Voters narrowly approved that language in 2006 through a ballot initiative, but the Legislature is now considering sending a measure to voters to get rid of the sentence.

“As representatives of the people of Colorado, it is our shared responsibility to uphold the principles of equality and justice for all citizens, regardless of political affiliations,” said state Sen. Joann Ginal, a Fort Collins Democrat. “While we’re protected today, our state constitution still reflects outdated language and values.”

Ginal is running the resolution that would put the amendment on November’s ballot. The Senate gave preliminary approval to it on Friday, but still needs to sign off with a recorded vote before it moves to the House.

Constitutional amendments need a supermajority vote in the Legislature, so at least one Republican senator will need to vote yes for it to advance. House Democrats have the votes to pass it without Republican support. If it is put on the ballot, it will need 55% voter approval.

The marriage line in the state constitution is inoperative and unenforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, but some supporters of same-sex marriage have been concerned about the decision’s longevity after the court’s conservative majority overturned the federal right to an abortion two years ago.

In a concurring opinion in that case, Justice Clarence Thomas — one of the most conservative voices on the bench — wrote that the reasoning the court applied in the Dobbs decision could extend to other rulings that codify rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

“Our LGBTQ community is very afraid, living in fear that rights will be taken away,” Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Longmont Democrat, said.

Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, said on the Senate floor that even if the Obergefell decision is overturned, same-sex marriages in Colorado would still be protected by state law. Changing the constitution would not have a true impact except for the removal of language many people find offensive.

“I think the law is settled. I think, in some ways, the culture of our country is settled on this matter,” he said.

The legislative session ends on May 8.

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Sara Wilson covers state government, Colorado’s congressional delegation, energy and other stories for Newsline. She formerly was a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain, where she covered politics and government in southern Colorado.

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The preceding article was previously published by the Colorado Newsline and is republished with permission.

Colorado Newsline provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Coloradans. Newsline is based in Denver, and coverage of activities at the Capitol are central to its mission, but its reporters are devoted to providing reliable information about topics that concern readers in all parts of the state, from Lamar to Dinosaur, from Durango to Sterling.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.