(REUTERS/Megan Varner)
With the new fiscal year starting from July 1, a whole host of new state laws are coming into effect throughout the United States, from effectively banning transgender people from restrooms, barring discussion of menstruation in schools, and book bans, to new ways to get birth control, new laws that place more restrictions on gun dealers.
Kansas has a new law that bars transgender people from restrooms, locker rooms, some shelters, and rape crisis centers. It is not clear exactly how the law will be enforced—there are no enforcement mechanisms within it—but the law takes a step that many other state laws don’t and ties the legal definition of what it means to be a man or a woman to the sex a person is assigned at birth, creating a series of obstacles for transgender people. Supporters of the law have branded it as a way to protect women, but critics note that it will effectively erase transgender people and embolden harassment. The law is going into effect despite Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto, as more conservative lawmakers overrode her veto.
Georgia will from now on be banning most gender-affirming procedures and hormone replacement for transgender people under 18. The law suggests “allowing the child time to mature and develop his or her own identity” before allowing gender-affirming procedures such as sex reassignment surgeries. Already, families have filed a lawsuit over the law earlier this week. Other challenges have gained some traction in the past. A federal judge in Arkansas shot down that state’s ban in recent days, while earlier this week a federal judge in Kentucky temporarily blocked a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth to allow courts to hear challenges to the law.