Kansas' Republican attorney general Kris Kobach is telling public schools they are required to tell parents if students attending the school are transgender or non-binary-even if they haven't "outted" themselves to their family.
Kris Kobach listens as US President Donald Trump speaks during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, DC, July 19, 2017.
Even though there is no law in the state of Kansas that requires them to do so. Kobach's declaration was the latest move to restrict transgender rights in the state.
Last year he successfully, albeit temporarily, blocked Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's administration from changing the listings for sex on the birth certificates and driver's licenses of transgender people that reflect their gender identity.
This move is part of a larger Republican strategy in which GOP state attorney generals are using their authority to wade into culture wars without a specific law or official mandate to do so.
He argues that failing to "out" a transitioning or non-binary student violates a parent's right to know. In December, Kobach sent letters to six school districts as well as the state association for local school board members.
He then issued a public statement after four districts refused to rewrite their policies. In a classic bully maneuver, he sent letters to superintendents of three Kansas City-area districts, Topeka's superintendent, and the Kansas Association of School Boards accused them of having "surrendered to woke gender ideology."
The letters did not lay out the consequences for those who refused his declaration.LGBTQ advocates believe the letters are seeking policy changes that would put transgender and non-binary people in physical danger and an official attempt to let transgender people know they're not welcome.
Jordan Smith, leader of the Kansas chapter of the LGBTQ+ rights group Parasol Patrol, had this to say;
"It's like they don't want us to exist in public places," said Smith, who is non-binary.
There are laws requiring schools to inform parents if their children use different pronouns in five states, Kansas is not one of them, and six other states with laws that encourage schools to "out" transgender and non-binary students.
Last year a bill was introduced in Kansas that would bar schools from using the preferred pronouns for a student under 18 without parental consent. How it never cleared a Senate committee.
