Last year, supporters appeared to be two votes short of a two-thirds majority in the House. While they had 82 votes last month, two Republicans were absent. In the House, supporters need 84 votes for a two-thirds majority. In the Senate, supporters on Thursday had one more vote than a two-thirds majority - the minimum needed to override Kelly’s expected veto. “I’m not willing to wait until a Kansas girl is put into this situation,” she said. Renee Erickson, a former college basketball player, said that opponents of the bill don’t seem concerned about the mental health of cisgender girls “who will be forced to undress” around transgender girls or women. But backers of the bill argue that the state should act before transgender athletes become more prevalent. Kansas officials and LGBTQ-rights advocates say only a handful of transgender youth participate in high school activities - and possibly only one trans Kansas girl is on a sports team. They also argue that allowing transgender athletes to compete costs cisgender girls and women scholarships and other opportunities and undoes decades of progress against sex discrimination in sports. Supporters of restricting transgender athletes argue that it’s necessary to preserve fair competition. “It’s a backlash to the fact that the world is changing and it’s been changing for a very long time.” “This is a really, really aggressive backlash - this sort of very pointed, very vicious attack on trans rights,” said Jenna Bellemere, a 19-year-old transgender woman and University of Kansas student. The measure also is part of GOP conservatives’ broader national campaign against transgender rights, which includes bans on gender-affirming care for minors, preventing transgender people from using facilities associated with their gender identities and blocking them from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates. If they are successful, Kansas would join at least 18 other states with laws limiting girls and women’s sports to athletes who had female anatomy at birth. While she won a narrow victory, supporters of a ban appeared to pick up just enough legislative seats to have the two-thirds majorities necessary in both chambers to override a veto. Republicans made it a major issue when she ran for reelection last year, focusing multiple television ads on it. Kelly vetoed two previous versions of the ban. Laura Kelly, as the state House approved it two weeks earlier on an 82-40 vote. The state Senate voted 28-11 to approve the bill, which would impose the ban for K-12, college and club sports starting July 1. TOPEKA - The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, and it appears for now to have the votes to override the Democratic governor’s expected veto. Adam Kellogg, center, a University of Kansas student and transgender man, follows a Kansas Senate health committee hearing on legislation aimed at preventing gender-affirming care for minors, Tuesday, Feb.
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