Members of the local LGBTQ+ community gathered on the steps of Emporia’s White Auditorium on Saturday to protest a new state law they say is discriminatory.
Kansas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 180 earlier this year and also overrode Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s veto, setting the stage for the bill to become law when the state fiscal year began Saturday. At the Pride Never Ends rally, organizer Kelly Barrett said lawmakers “got it wrong.”
Rory Charlie Reeh is a trans man and has been an Emporia resident for about a decade. He castigated lawmakers, saying SB 180 negatively affects the LGBTQ+ community and women assigned at birth.
Emporia High student Liam Angulo offered this perspective:
Chuck Torres and Susan Fowler, both straight individuals, used their times at the microphone to highlight different reasons for their support.
Ryann Brooks, a parent of a trans teenager, says laws aren’t enough.
SB 180, also known as the Women’s Bill of Rights, defines biological sex in areas like domestic violence centers, locker rooms and restrooms. Lawmakers who voted for the bill, including 17th District Senator Jeff Longbine, 13th District Representative Duane Droge of Eureka and 76th District Representative Eric Smith of Burlington, say the law protects women from unwanted or potentially dangerous incursions in these areas, while 60th District Representative Mark Schreiber voted against it, saying it was unnecessary, and critics — including Pride Never Ends organizers — have said the bill was designed to “erase” trans and non-binary residents from state law and its protections.
Close to 60 people attended the rally Saturday. The Emporia rally was one of nearly 20 similar events held in cities big and small across Kansas.
Photos by Chuck Samples/KVOE News
