WTF #Kansas!
An #AntiTrans #BathroomBill With a Cruel New Twist
A new Kansas law lets those “aggrieved” by the presence of a trans person in a bathroom to file a civil suit for monetary damages.
Natasha Lennard
February 3 2026, 8:59 a.m.
"With masked paramilitary forces grabbing nonwhite people from the streets and shooting civilians with impunity, it can be difficult to keep focus on all the other ways Republicans are entrenching a #fascist status quo nationwide. For #trans people, however, the legislative and policy assaults, which have been escalating red states for nearly a decade, are only getting worse — and, as ever, drawing all too little concern from Democratic leaders.
"Just last week, the Kansas legislature passed some of the most far-reaching measures to push trans and #GenderNonconforming people out of public life to date. Bathroom bans that bar trans people from restrooms aligned with their gender identity have become grimly common; over 20 states have such a law on the books. But Kansas’s new anti-trans bathroom bill adds a dangerous twist: a #BountyHunter provision.
"The law would permit private citizens to sue and seek monetary reward based on claiming to encounter a trans person in the bathroom. That’s on top of some of the harshest punishments of any existing bathroom bans, such as criminal charges, steep fines and even jail time.
"As journalist and trans rights advocate Erin Reed first reported, the bill’s vague language means that its reach could extend beyond public buildings — the remit of most bathroom bans around the country.
" 'As written, it would not only be the first bathroom bounty law to target transgender people directly, but also the first to extend a bathroom ban into private spaces,' noted Reed, “effectively creating the nation’s first private bathroom ban if enacted by empowering bounty hunters to search for trans people in bathrooms.'
[...]
"Kansas Republicans rushed through the bathroom ban, skirting public comment by essentially sneaking the bill into another piece of legislation aimed at denying trans people correct government IDs. The ID legislation is in and of itself extreme: it would invalidate driver’s licenses, government IDs, and even birth certificates that don’t list a person’s sex as assigned at birth.
"The bill would require trans people to surrender their correctly identifying driver’s license or risk a misdemeanor offense for driving with a invalid license. Trans Kansans would thus have to choose between carrying identification with their assigned sex at birth — inviting potentially further harassment and violence in public — or forgoing aspects of public life entirely. It’s a policy in line with the Trump administration’s move to stop issuing accurate passports to trans Americans."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/03/kansas-trans-bathroom-bill-bounty-hunter/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/VKuYu
#USPol #GBLTQ #GBLTQRights #TransErasure #TransRightsAreHumanRights
