The Kansas House passed Senate Bill 233 last Tuesday. If signed into law or Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto is overridden, transgender kids in Kansas will not be able to access life-saving gender-affirming care. 

Watching the House discussion on the bill as I sat in Granada Coffee, I became enraged as Republican Rep. Brenda Lanwehr of Wichita framed this bill as comparable to that of age restrictions on alcohol, voting, organ donation and using tanning beds. It’s really not.

I became even more enraged when the bill passed 82-39. Naively, I had so much hope that it wouldn’t.

In her closing statement, Rep. Landwehr emphasized that herself and other proponents of the bill are “not attacking children that are feeling different.” 

The thing is, they are. They’re doing exactly that.

This is an attack on trans kids, or, in her words, “children that are feeling different,” regardless of whether or not proponents actually believe that. 

In fact, this legislation only further encourages other red states to take similar action in policing the lives of trans children instead of trusting supportive parents to make informed decisions with their kids and medical professionals to do what is in the best interest of their patients. 

This will push trans kids back into the closet. It will make trans kids hate themselves for being themselves, and it will ruin them.

More importantly, it will cost trans kids their lives. 

My heart is broken for trans children right now. It’s broken for my trans friends and peers, for the ones who will have to stop their treatment or may never get to access it. It’s broken for the trans kids who aren’t out yet, for those who are still figuring themselves out, and the trans kids of the future. 

Two weeks ago, I published an opinion on this very bill. I said that it does nothing to protect children and it has no place in this state. I wholeheartedly believed it then and I believe it even more now. 

The ironic thing is that these legislators truly believe they are standing up for children, that they’re making their lives better by taking away this life-saving care. 

If Kansas legislators really wanted to “stand up for these children,” they’d protect their rights–not take them away.