Kansas Enacts Sweeping Transgender Bathroom Law

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas have enacted possibly the most sweeping transgender bathroom law in the U.S. The GOP-controlled Legislature on Thursday overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the measure. The vote in the House was 84-40 and gave supporters exactly the two-thirds majority they needed to override Kelly’s action. The vote in the Senate on Wednesday was 28-12, and the new law will take effect July 1. At least eight other states have transgender bathroom laws, mostly applying to schools. The Kansas law is different because it applies to more facilities but also because it defines male and female in law based on a person’s reproductive anatomy at birth.