TOPEKA – Over attempts by Democrats to smoke screen the override vote with claims that it doesn’t lower grocery prices for Kansans, Republicans in the Kansas statehouse on Tuesday used the strengthened majorities they won after last fall’s voter backlash against radical progressive ideology to can Governor Kelly’s veto of the Help Not Harm Act, which will now forbid Kansas doctors from the chemical and surgical abuse of minors to change their sex.
It was the third attempt in as many sessions to overturn Kelly’s vetoes on similar legislation. The Senate voted 31-9 in the override with all members voting. The House vote passed by a single vote 85-34, with District 60 Rep. Mark Schreiber of Emporia breaking ranks with Republicans. Two other Republicans, Samantha Poetter-Parshall of Paola and Rick Wilborn of McPherson, did not vote on the measure.
Parshall told the Informer she was called home to a family issue but was tracking the vote after being assured the override would fly. She said she planned to return to Topeka to vote in favor of the override if needed. Wilborn, who also voted to pass the original measure, said he was at home ill for the override vote.
In her veto message last week, Kelly called the bill to stop irreversible surgeries on minors under the age of 18 with a mental condition previously known as “gender dysphoria” an infringement on parental rights.
“Right now, the Legislature should be focused on ways to help Kansans cope with rising prices. That is the most important issue for Kansans,” Kelly said last week. That is where my focus is. Infringing on parental rights is not appropriate, nor is it a Kansas value.”
Democrats have echoed those who encourage gender dysphoric youth, saying sex change surgeries and chemical puberty blockers reduce what is statistically a higher incidence of suicide among this cohort – a position not supported by numerous qualified studies which show so-called “gender affirming care” has no bearing on whether those youths will attempt suicide. The number of youths claiming transgender identities has surged among those under 25 in recent years, in correlation with the explosion of social media among young people, leading researchers to believe the expansion is rooted in social contagion.
Surgeries to change one’s sex included double mastectomies for teen girls and hysterectomies, as well as the construction of a false penis from fat and tissue typically taken from the arms or legs or buttocks. For boys, castration and penectomy is followed by construction of a faux vagina and addition of breast implants. Both include the addition of opposite sex hormones which must be continued for life. Complications from the surgery often continue for decades and can bring about related infections. Prior to the Kansas ban, parents who enabled children under 18 suffering from gender dysphoria could give consent for their to undergo such procedures.
“Today, the Kansas Legislature stood up for Kansas children, ensuring they cannot become test subjects for gender ideologues,” said Brittany Jones with Kansas Family Voice. “Our kids deserve better than being subjected to procedures that even proponents of the procedures have admitted are experimental.”
“Even while other countries are choosing to end these procedures, Governor Kelly sided with radical activists who are profiting off of children,” Jones said.
Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins wrote Kelly’s veto off as more lock-step allegiance to radical policy embraced in recent years, signified by the heavy Leftist influences and policy by President Joe Biden since he took office in 2021. Kelly vetoed similar bills in 2023 and 2024 when Republican defectors cost the majorities their required 2/3 override margins. Last November’s elections saw the Kansas Senate hold its supermajority and add two additional seats, while the House maintained its existing complement and flipped three Democrat House districts to red, one in Hutchinson and two in Olathe. The wins were broadly seen as a repudiation of radical left philosophy – which also saw Republicans seize the U.S. Senate from Democrats and re-elect Donald Trump president.
Trump, in two of his initial executive orders since taking office a month ago, declared the official U.S. policy that there are only two genders, male and female. A second related order banned men from competing in women’s sports in the United States. Twenty-six states limit these procedures by various laws, though some are being challenged in court.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
