On February 17, the Kansas GOP approved a resolution opposing ‘all efforts to validate transgender identity,’ which is completely unsurprising given the state party’s recent actions toward the LGBTQ community. The state party has taken a hard right position on social issues in an attempt to protect and privilege evangelical ideas at the expense of the LGBT community’s civil liberties.
In 2015, former Governor Sam Brownback repealed an executive order that prohibited the discrimination and harassment of LGBTQ state workers. During his tenure, the Republican controlled state legislature also passed a bill allowing faith-based college groups to restrict membership to like-minded people, in effect sanctioning groups to deny membership to those who identify as LGBTQ. In 2016, the state Senate approved a resolution that opposed the infamous “bathroom bill” — the Obama administration’s directive to schools receiving federal funding to allow transgender students to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
While the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in all fifty states in 2015, the Republican Party platform opposes same-sex marriage, saying “our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage.” Donald Trump, tweeted last July that he will be banning the service of transgender troops. The Republican National Committee has since endorsed the ban and sided with Trump on defining transgender as “a disqualifying psychological and physical” condition.
The lead proponent of the resolution asserts that the party recognizes the dignity of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Yet, the GOP shows a clear trend of denying the dignity and liberty of those who identify as LGBTQ, in particular transgender people, by designing and passing laws that discriminate and dehumanize.