THE ESSEX FILES: Kansas Was Right to Restore Common Sense on Bathrooms

Kansas has been told that insisting on basic boundaries in public bathrooms is an act of bigotry. The Legislature just said otherwise, and it was right to do so.

By overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Substitute for House Bill 244, lawmakers put into law a simple standard for government buildings. Bathrooms and locker rooms will be based on a person’s sex as recorded at birth, not on self-declared identity. That is not radical. It is the way these spaces have operated for generations and the way most people still expect them to work.

BREAKING: The Kansas State House has voted 87-37 in FAVOR of passing SB 244, which defines "gender" as biological sex, bans men from invading women's bathrooms, and requires accurate sex-based identification on licenses and birth certificates.

Every Democrat voted against it.… pic.twitter.com/L9rVCLYYyC
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 18, 2026

Supporters of the veto have tried to frame this as a question of economic development and international reputation. One Democrat warned that, with Kansas helping host the World Cup, “Where one goes to the bathroom does not grow our economy.” That misses the point. Legislatures do more than chase events and investors. They also resolve conflicts over how people must live together in shared spaces. Privacy and safety are not side issues. They are core duties of government.

Kansas’ governor vetoed a bill that banned men from the women’s room. The legislature overrode her.https://t.co/aT5MITMFef
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) February 19, 2026

Opponents also say this law will endanger transgender Kansans by outing them through identification rules and requiring them to use facilities that do not match their identity. Those concerns deserve to be heard, and any implementation should be careful, especially when it comes to identification documents. But acknowledging that does not erase the legitimate concerns of women and girls who do not want to undress or shower next to biological males in public spaces. Lawmakers do not become hateful simply because they take those concerns seriously.

🚨Good News: Kansas Republicans have voted to override Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill that requires transgender people to use restrooms and changing facilities based on biological sex rather than gender identity pic.twitter.com/xeIDPFtlXk
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) February 19, 2026

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The loudest criticism of the bill has relied on moral rhetoric rather than practical argument. A rabbi in the Senate gallery invoked a famous Holocaust era statement, warning that “First they came for the trans people.” That kind of comparison is not just historically off base. It shuts down the very debate we need in order to find durable rules for a pluralistic society. It's also disrespectful to the memory of those who actually died in the Holocaust.

Senate leaders described the override as restoring sanity and protecting women from having to share bathrooms with biological men in government buildings. Stripped of the political spin, that is exactly what the bill does. It draws a bright line in public buildings while leaving private businesses, churches, and other institutions free to set their own policies. It also provides clarity for schools and agencies that have been caught in the crossfire of shifting guidance and lawsuits.

Reasonable people can disagree on where every line should be. Some will argue for more single-user facilities or local flexibility. Those are discussions worth having. What Kansas has done, however, is to reject the idea that long standing sex based distinctions are inherently discriminatory. It has affirmed that women and girls are entitled to spaces where biological reality still matters.

In an era when activists seek to collapse any difference between sex and gender identity, that is a modest but important stand. Kansas did not pass a sweeping cultural manifesto. It passed a bathroom law for government buildings. Sometimes governing is exactly that plain.

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