NOVEMBER 1, 2024
To the editor: As a father of two girls, including a daughter who proudly represented our state as Miss Kansas USA, I’ve seen firsthand the complexities of balancing inclusion and fair competition. My daughter competed against a transgender contestant at Miss USA. When we took a step back, our family was able to accept that this contestant’s gender didn’t provide an inherent competitive advantage – but it was still an adjustment, it was hard and we navigated resistance, understanding and the discomfort that comes with changes in our society. Voting against a blanket ban doesn’t mean endorsing extreme situations or disregarding common sense. Unfortunately, the recent proposed Kansas ban on transgender athletes leaves no room for a community, a school or a family to navigate challenging circumstances with the respect and nuance all of our children deserve. Not only does it restrict transgender youth, but it overreaches by preventing young girls and boys from playing on teams together as early as kindergarten. In many communities in Kansas, this is necessary to form a full team. The bill even included measures for genitalia checks — an appalling invasion of privacy that crosses the line into legislative perversion. Any parent of teenage girls knows that state-sanctioned genital checks is a recipe for abuse and humiliation toward all girls. There are no registered transgender athletes competing in District 5 – none. No school locally has highlighted this as an actual issue in my eight years as a legislator. The Kansas State High School Activities Association already has rules in place regarding participation. Because these bans aren’t about fairness, they are reactionary and unnecessary in a state where less than a handful of transgender athletes are involved in low level sports, but more importantly, these laws are unduly targeting a segment of our community where individuals are committing suicide at an alarmingly higher rate. We need to reject blanket bans like this and focus on the nuanced areas where we need to protect certain competitive sports where it is obvious that we need to intervene. In fact, this undue focus on trans people is meant to divide us. We have shared challenges that need solutions and instead our Legislature spends an inordinate amount of time on social issues like this. I believe most Kansans are tired of this incessant focus. I want to focus on the issues that actually affect every day Kansans: fixing our tax code, funding public education, solving the teacher shortage, maintaining our roads and drawing more business to our state as I’ve done in my term as senator. Rather than letting divisive tactics distract us, let’s keep working to make Kansas a better place for all families.
– Sen. Jeff Pittman represents District 5 in the Kansas Senate.
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