Gubernatorial candidate calls out Kansas Governor’s stance on trans sports

TOPEKA – (September 19, 2022) – Kansas Attorney General and Republican Nominee for Governor Derek Schmidt today criticized Governor Laura Kelly for flip flopping yet AGAIN on the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

“At least Governor Kelly is now being honest about her position on this issue with her friends on the Kansas City Star editorial board, but she ought to tell the truth to Kansas voters,” Schmidt said. “She’s wrong to oppose the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and she’s wrong to mislead Kansans about her real position in her television ad. My position is crystal clear – female athletes in women’s and girls sports should not be required to compete against biological males.”

Kelly, who has twice vetoed the bill, released a new television ad where she looks directly to camera and says “of course men shouldn’t be playing in girl’s sports.” But today, the press reports Kelly told an editorial board she remains opposed to the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act despite misleading voters otherwise in the new ad:

The bill would require that “[a]thletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.” Schmidt has been a vocal supporter of the bill, previously criticizing Kelly at the time of her vetoes. He has also successfully blocked a Biden administration rule that would force schools to let students use bathrooms and locker rooms and play on sports teams based on gender identity instead of their biological sex.

“Laura Kelly has been telling Kansans for months that she is in the middle of the road,” Schmidt said at a news conference earlier this month. “Truth is, on this issue and many others she is far from it. It is an extreme view, well outside the mainstream in Kansas, to say that girls should be forced to compete with and share locker rooms with their biological male counterparts. That extreme view is held by Laura Kelly and Joe Biden, but not by most Kansans.”