Republicans used their dominance in both chambers to summon the two-thirds majorities needed to override the veto with votes of 31-9 in the Senate and 84-35 in the House. The unscheduled votes caught Democrats off-guard.
Senate Bill 63 prohibits health care providers from providing surgery, hormones or puberty blockers to children who identify as a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Health care providers who break the law will be stripped of their license.
It also prohibits the use of state funds for psychological treatment for transgender children, bans state employees from promoting “social transitioning,” and outlaws liability insurance for damages related to gender-affirming care.
A national anti-LGBTQ+ group called Do Not Harm drafted the model legislation, which is billed as the “Help Not Harm Act.”
In brief debates Tuesday in the House and Senate, Democrats echoed remarks made by the governor when she vetoed the bill earlier this month. The governor directed the Legislature to focus “on ways to help Kansans cope with rising prices.”
House Democrats complained about not being given advance notice that they would debate and vote on the veto. When Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, called the move “cowardly,” she was reprimanded by Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Derby Republican, not to impugn other members of the House.
Ruiz called the bill “egregious and cruel,” and said it wouldn’t help kids or families.
“We should all be enraged about this,” Ruiz said. “This is wrong on so, so many levels. I know certain people don’t care. They don’t care about these kids. All they care about is control — that somehow the Legislature has the right to interfere in people’s bodies.”
