Governor Laura Kelly vetoed Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 233. The bill would forbid the use of state funds to promote gender transitioning, prohibiting healthcare providers from treating children whose gender identity is inconsistent with the child’s sex, and give discipline against a healthcare provider who performs such treatment, among other things concerning transgender teens. In her veto message, Kelly says the legislation is divisive and targets a small group of Kansans by placing government mandates on them and dictating to parents how to best raise and care for their children. She says she doesn’t believe that is a conservative value and certainly not a Kansas value.
Kelly was very clear in her assertion that the legislation tramples parental rights. She says the last place she would want to be, as a politician, is between a parent and a child who needed medical care of any kind and she says that is what the legislation does. She added that if the legislature paid this much attention to the other 99.8% of the students, the state would have the best schools on earth.
