Kansas Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto, Protects Women’s Bathrooms

by Jeff Johnston | February 19, 2026 | Government Updates

The Kansas Legislature overrode a veto to pass a bill protecting women’s safety and privacy in single sex areas of public buildings, including bathrooms, locker rooms and showers.

SB 244 mandates that public buildings, including public schools and universities, have private spaces “for use only by individuals of one sex.” It also requires birth certificates and drivers’ licenses to designate “gender” based on birth sex — not false “gender identities.”

The new law defines “male” and “female” biologically, according to an individual’s reproductive system; sets penalties for those who repeatedly violate the law; and allows individuals whose privacy is violated by a member of the opposite sex to sue that person.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed SB 244, but the Senate voted 31-9 and the House voted 87-37 to override her decision.

Kelly explained her veto in a press statement, saying the bill was poorly written and arguing:

I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans.

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan applauded the veto override, explaining why the bill was necessary:

Women and girls shouldn’t be forced to sacrifice their privacy and safety in the name of promoting gender ideology. Allowing men to invade women’s most intimate spaces – including changing rooms and restrooms – compromises their dignity. SB 244 ensures that the private spaces of women and girls in government buildings are not open to men. It rightly prioritizes privacy and safety over ideology.

Rep. Abigail Boatman, D-Wichita, who was born male but believes he is a woman, denounced the law’s passage, accusing lawmakers of trying to police and control women.

Boatman, who was appointed to a seat by a vote of his party’s precinct leaders, told The Topeka Capital-Journal:

It’s hard to feel like it’s not, at least in part, about me, since I am a transgender person who spends my whole day in a government building.

But, as much as this may be about me and about transgender women in general, this is about policing women.

Boatman continued:

This is about policing what is acceptable expressions of womanhood and femininity, and we don’t do that to men. There’s been no outrage, at least not yet, about trans men and trans boys.

It’s always trans girls and trans women, and that’s because this is a mechanism to control women. One among many.

No. “Trans women” are not women. And boys and men are equally concerned when girls and women invade their privacy.

Radical journalists went along with the charade that a man can become a women with destructive, body-damaging drugs, hormones and surgeries.

Instead of calling this a reality-based, pro-woman bill that protects privacy and safety, many inaccurately labelled the bill an “anti-trans bathroom bill,” saying it requires “requires people to use bathrooms in public places that align with their sex assigned at birth.”

But sex is not “assigned at birth” — it’s objectively recognized and acknowledged. And people should use sex-segregated facilities in line with their sex — not some spurious self-identity.

Christians and conservatives have compassion for individuals struggling with self-hatred, mental health, and sexual sin and brokenness — some of the contributing factors that might lead someone to live as the opposite sex. We want them to accept and embrace their bodily reality.

But we also hold to the truth about human sexual dimorphism. There are only two sexes, individuals are either male or female, and no one can change from one sex to the other.

At least 20 states have laws protecting privacy and safety in bathrooms in public buildings or in K-12 schools and universities.

Kudos to the Kansas Legislature for joining them in recognizing truth and protecting privacy and safety in sex-segregated spaces.

Related articles and resources:

California Students Battle to Protect Girls’ Private Spaces in Schools

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate approach

Focus on the Family with Jim Daly: Becoming the Woman God Made Me to Be

Focus on the Family with Jim Daly: The Journey Back to My True Identity

Helping Children with Gender Identity Confusion

Laura Perry Smalts’ Authentic Shift From Transgenderism To Embracing God’s Design

Middle School Girls Who Protested ‘Trans’ Athlete Are Banned From Future Competition

Riley Gaines and 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over ‘Transgender Policy’