This bill is not about bathrooms...yet again! It is about deputizing the public to police bodies, suspend due process, and manufacture fear as a governing strategy.
Kansas Republicans are proposing something extreme even by today’s standards: a state-sanctioned bounty system that invites private citizens to surveil, confront, and sue people over perceived sex, potentially in both public and private spaces. That is not governance. That is legalized vigilantism.
A bill that endangers more than trans people is the unwritten consequence. And from a state that constantly is trying to be the testing ground for policies and regulations that end up hurting its citizens regularly, will, by no surprise, hurt its citizens again!
No. It starts with "Any individual who, while accessing a multi-occupancy private space designated for use only by such individual's sex..."
So if a cis man goes into a women's bathroom and reports a trans woman there, he can not receive the bounty for it. And in fact a cis woman could sue him and collect the bounty on him.
Why are they so fucking determined to get into someone else's pants?! I swear, someone comes into the bathroom where I am and start questioning ANYONE, and I'm coming after them!
This is absolutely disgusting! What is wrong with these people?? Waking up every morning driven by hatred must be a terrible way to live but what else would be the motivation?
Among many things in the proposed bills, the two year time limit within which civil charges can be filed raises big red flags for me. Two years for right wingers to research the names of folks they may have crossed paths with in the bathroom to see if they are trans. And, as in so many of these bills, cis-gendered non-binary, lesbian, and androgynous folks will also be targeted. We've already seen cases of lesbian women being accused of being trans and assaulted when going to pee.
Thank you, Erin, for your swift and thorough reporting on this issue.
This Kansas state bill would certainly be awful for our community. I hope that if it passes the senate then a veto by governor Kelly would not be overridden.
Do you think that this bill is partly intended to distract republican voters in Kansas from focusing on other Trump and GOP misfires, especially their mcruel and stupid immigration crackdown?
They received so much testimony opposing this from constituents that it disrupted the first hearing--even with less than 24h notice!!--and they still went forward. Absolutely disgusting behavior that Kansans reject.
We have now entered the world of Hitler and the Nazi regeme
Kansas SB 244 Section 1H doesn’t just redefine “gender” — it empowers private citizens to police and report, sue, or punish transgender Kansans for using restrooms and private spaces that match their gender identity.
This means:
Individuals could act like bounty hunters — monitoring bathrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces and suing people they claim are violating the law.
It could apply broadly, potentially even in private businesses — not just government buildings.
This is state-sanctioned harassment, turning everyday citizens into enforcers in a way that puts transgender people at risk of legal action, discrimination, and public shaming.
This isn’t about “privacy” — it’s about giving anyone the power to target their neighbors and coworkers over who they are.
We can protect privacy and dignity without empowering harassment or lawsuits against transgender
Kansas should be focused on schools, healthcare, and lowering costs — not policing who someone is or where they can go to the bathroom.
Yes!!! And if they get this passed, they will expand it to other states so that private citizens can snitch on anyone who doesn't fit with the regime. They are pushing this at several different points: trans, immigrants, anyone who is not a CN, etc. It always starts this way.
It will escape nobody whose eyes and ears are open that "𝘴𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘵!" is an essential page in the playbook of authoritarian terror states. Make the people constantly suspicious of each other, and it's that much harder for them to unite.
We can't control these right-wing politicians but we can win this war. Between the UK TERF efforts and the U.S. being under Trump, that side feels pretty smug right now. But it's telling how little we've really fought back, yet. We're being wise and taking it a day at a time because it's what it will take to expose how this anti-trans hysteria has failed, is failing people, based in lies and delusions. We're not losing the argument when it comes to telling the truth and having some courage, instead of self-serving rationalizations and unholy alliances with Nazis.
Feature, not bug. The same legislation they want to use to force us trans folks out of public life altogether will also serve the purpose of policing femininity (for only conservative definitions thereof, naturally) and coercing more women to simply not spend time outside their homes for fear of being harassed or assaulted for not looking "womanly" enough. Scratch a transphobe, find a misogynist. Every. Single. Time.
Goddamn these fucking people. Every day, every hour, is an exercise in going lower and lower and lower.
I'm imagining thousands of unemployed, unhinged, armed men going to every restaurant, store, business in KS, and just sitting by the women's room staring at the door. Waitin' and starin'. No more customers, no more sales, no more economy, just thugs in red hats sitting by bathrooms, staring, waiting for a chance at a payoff.
Can these people find literally anything to do other than being evil?
They have no policies besides funneling money into the hands of the turbo wealthy, so legitimately the answer is no
This bill is not about bathrooms...yet again! It is about deputizing the public to police bodies, suspend due process, and manufacture fear as a governing strategy.
Kansas Republicans are proposing something extreme even by today’s standards: a state-sanctioned bounty system that invites private citizens to surveil, confront, and sue people over perceived sex, potentially in both public and private spaces. That is not governance. That is legalized vigilantism.
A bill that endangers more than trans people is the unwritten consequence. And from a state that constantly is trying to be the testing ground for policies and regulations that end up hurting its citizens regularly, will, by no surprise, hurt its citizens again!
So wait, can men go into women's bathroom to bounty hunt?
Yes, and check genitalia! They have lost their minds!
That is wild
No. It starts with "Any individual who, while accessing a multi-occupancy private space designated for use only by such individual's sex..."
So if a cis man goes into a women's bathroom and reports a trans woman there, he can not receive the bounty for it. And in fact a cis woman could sue him and collect the bounty on him.
Why are they so fucking determined to get into someone else's pants?! I swear, someone comes into the bathroom where I am and start questioning ANYONE, and I'm coming after them!
This is absolutely disgusting! What is wrong with these people?? Waking up every morning driven by hatred must be a terrible way to live but what else would be the motivation?
In a state like Kansas, it might be their only entertainment. Well, that and tipping cows.
Among many things in the proposed bills, the two year time limit within which civil charges can be filed raises big red flags for me. Two years for right wingers to research the names of folks they may have crossed paths with in the bathroom to see if they are trans. And, as in so many of these bills, cis-gendered non-binary, lesbian, and androgynous folks will also be targeted. We've already seen cases of lesbian women being accused of being trans and assaulted when going to pee.
This is just sick! It comes all down to policing women's bodies! Same as in sports! Who is "woman" enough. Its misogyny, its just sick!
I agree it is about women. I never hear or read about trans men being addressed in discussions.
Thank you, Erin, for your swift and thorough reporting on this issue.
This Kansas state bill would certainly be awful for our community. I hope that if it passes the senate then a veto by governor Kelly would not be overridden.
Do you think that this bill is partly intended to distract republican voters in Kansas from focusing on other Trump and GOP misfires, especially their mcruel and stupid immigration crackdown?
What could possibly go wrong with this utterly ridiculous bill?
They received so much testimony opposing this from constituents that it disrupted the first hearing--even with less than 24h notice!!--and they still went forward. Absolutely disgusting behavior that Kansans reject.
We have now entered the world of Hitler and the Nazi regeme
Kansas SB 244 Section 1H doesn’t just redefine “gender” — it empowers private citizens to police and report, sue, or punish transgender Kansans for using restrooms and private spaces that match their gender identity.
This means:
Individuals could act like bounty hunters — monitoring bathrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces and suing people they claim are violating the law.
It could apply broadly, potentially even in private businesses — not just government buildings.
This is state-sanctioned harassment, turning everyday citizens into enforcers in a way that puts transgender people at risk of legal action, discrimination, and public shaming.
This isn’t about “privacy” — it’s about giving anyone the power to target their neighbors and coworkers over who they are.
We can protect privacy and dignity without empowering harassment or lawsuits against transgender
Kansas should be focused on schools, healthcare, and lowering costs — not policing who someone is or where they can go to the bathroom.
Yes!!! And if they get this passed, they will expand it to other states so that private citizens can snitch on anyone who doesn't fit with the regime. They are pushing this at several different points: trans, immigrants, anyone who is not a CN, etc. It always starts this way.
It already has started
It will escape nobody whose eyes and ears are open that "𝘴𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘵!" is an essential page in the playbook of authoritarian terror states. Make the people constantly suspicious of each other, and it's that much harder for them to unite.
We can't control these right-wing politicians but we can win this war. Between the UK TERF efforts and the U.S. being under Trump, that side feels pretty smug right now. But it's telling how little we've really fought back, yet. We're being wise and taking it a day at a time because it's what it will take to expose how this anti-trans hysteria has failed, is failing people, based in lies and delusions. We're not losing the argument when it comes to telling the truth and having some courage, instead of self-serving rationalizations and unholy alliances with Nazis.
Soooo what happens when someone inevitably sues a cis woman they think is trans? or a trans man using the womens room (which is what they want)?
Feature, not bug. The same legislation they want to use to force us trans folks out of public life altogether will also serve the purpose of policing femininity (for only conservative definitions thereof, naturally) and coercing more women to simply not spend time outside their homes for fear of being harassed or assaulted for not looking "womanly" enough. Scratch a transphobe, find a misogynist. Every. Single. Time.
Goddamn these fucking people. Every day, every hour, is an exercise in going lower and lower and lower.
I'm imagining thousands of unemployed, unhinged, armed men going to every restaurant, store, business in KS, and just sitting by the women's room staring at the door. Waitin' and starin'. No more customers, no more sales, no more economy, just thugs in red hats sitting by bathrooms, staring, waiting for a chance at a payoff.
Is there some kind of contest going on between certain states on who can enact the most radical anti trans legislation? Sure seems like it at times.