Kansas Institutes the Pee Parts Police

 

Kansas Republicans just overrode the Democratic governor’s veto, enacting a new law that allows for forced genital inspections of children to make sure they’re not transgender. https://t.co/7Zx1nVQc1y

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 5, 2023

The trans panic that somehow, exposure to the existence of people who did not identify with their birth gender assignment will "contaminate" others has now resulted in something ghoulish and perverted that affects all kids who want to do sports in Kansas--they have to subject their genitalia to someone's review. 

Kansas decided to be the pee parts police and go totally weird. The Powers That Be decided to become genital inspectors to decide who can do sports.  Wow. People want to be the deciders of genital correctness. Trans athletes in k-12 education are probably less than 1% of candidates to participate in school sports, but here is Kansas, deciding to physically humiliate any children. Any children at all*. Who just want to do sports. And should not have their genitals subjected to some weird review. No one should!  These legislators do not care who it humiliates, who it hurts, how it is offensive and does not affect the non-trans people in anyway. They just have their scapegoat and here they are--goat scaping. 

The idea that anyone should be the pee parts police is just ridiculously intrusive. We don't think people should search a house or a car without some reasonable pretext--why body parts? This isn't conservatism--it's a perversion. Why are so-called GOP family values conservatives so interested in underage genitals? It is sick and should be treated like a sickness. 

UPDATE: For any who are confused when I say "any", when the law is supposed to focus on trans students, all students are going to be suspect, I mean, the concept of what is feminine or masculine is subjective, and human anatomy doesn't necessarily agree with social parameters. So you get a Caster Semanya. She is no man. She is just XX with high androgens. But other athletes can get challenged about their gender because of their skill. 

There's no reason to think trans people are going to change their gender just to participate in sports--that's a whole lot for any human to center their lives, loves, and legal documents around just to excel at some participatory meritocracy thing. So what I think is going to happen, sadly, is snitch culture will challenge the genitalia of really good athletes who aren't trans at all and kill women's sports specifically. Because trans rights are human rights, but are also rights feminists need to be attuned to. 

There's Something Right with Kansas

 

I believe the idea was simple enough--put a referendum on altering the Kansas state constitution with respects to abortion on the primary ballot in a red state in a midterm year and let the natural conservatism and low turnout do the rest. 

Yeeeeaaaah, that's not what happened. Instead, there was very strong voter turnout against that measure. The somewhat Orwellian named "Value Them Both" bill (which is more like, "Value them Both but While the Pregnant Person is Pregnant, Value the Fetus Just a Bit More") failed. Despite mushy-sounding language that made the proposition sound like it was affirming rights in the state constitution and preventing the funding of abortions in a way that was not being proposed, activism and clear messaging hammered home the idea that opting for "Yes" meant opening the door to an abortion ban.

In the post-Roe landscape, as people come more and more to look at the stark cost of denying reproductive freedom, these bans are not popular, because the burden of unwanted or unviable pregnancies without the remedy of abortion access is undue. 

Preserving rights, giving people choices, respecting freedom of conscience, and recognizing that laws should be humane because they are made for humans, and not the other way around, should be simple common sense. In a world where anti-abortion figures enthuse that 13 year olds can do "phenomenal" things as parents, it only becomes too clear that so-called pro-life activists are living in a dangerous fantasy that ignores the messiness of human events, where reasonable people understand all too well that children should not have to be phenomenal, and adult humans should be free to make choices that affect them physically, financially, and impact their whole families. 

Social conservatives are in denial that reserving freedom of choice is popular, because most people have not willfully blinded themselves to the realities of a heart-breaking miscarriage, the denial of life-saving care, the economic strain, or the simple need to let people have reproductive freedom because forced labor is wrong. 

To me, this says that anti-abortion extremists are already on the back foot and need to be booted. There's no good reason not to lean in on letting people know: one party respects your rights, and the other party wants to take them away, and make some pastor your private parts policeman. Make it crystal clear that it's abortion rights today, birth control tomorrow. If SCOTUS wanted this in the hands of the people--the people will need to decide--and if it's in the hands of the state, then it must be clear who needs to run the state senates, houses or assemblies as well.