Advocates for Youth condemns Kansas’s “bathroom bill,”  now a law, the latest measure attacking transgender health, rights, and existence to pass a state legislature.  The law will bar transgender people from using facilities consistent with their gender in public buildings, forcing transgender women to use men’s bathrooms and locker rooms and transgender men to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.  It is the most sweeping bathroom bill yet enacted, applying to prisons, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers, and could be interpreted even more broadly to bar transgender people from other public programs. 

Kansas governor Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode her veto. 

Everyone has the right to be safe and comfortable in restrooms. This law will put transgender people in discomfort and even danger. 

All over this country, we are witnessing a concerted effort to bring an end to the very existence of transgender people. It is imperative that everyone speak out against transphobia and look for ways to ensure transgender people in our communities are safe and supported. We should be celebrating all young people, including transgender young people, for who they are and helping them thrive – not codifying discrimination and bullying into our laws.