Kansas’ first transgender lawmaker reflects on ‘emotionally charged’ legislative session

State Rep. Stephanie Byers has endured a session in which Republicans tried to pass bills curbing rights of trans kids and a fellow lawmaker complained about sharing a restroom with her.
The 2022 Kansas legislative session is wrapping up and for state Rep. Stephanie Byers, the state's first openly transgender lawmaker, it has been one fraught with issues that hit close to home. The Republican-dominated Legislature pushed to pass multiple bills that target transgender students, including one that would ban female transgender students from girls’ and women’s sports teams.

Byers said this session has been more “emotionally charged” than her first session last year.

“It may simply be because the fact that, you know, it was so green last year, that the expression that it's like trying to take a drink of water out of a fire hose is so apropo. There's so much information coming at you that I didn't have time to maybe react as much,” Byers told KCUR’s Nomin Ujiyediin on Kansas City Today