Kansas anti-trans bathroom law leaves even state officials confused

There may be a few public restrooms in Kansas where the state’s expansive anti-trans bathroom law won’t apply.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach issued an opinion exempting certain spaces from the requirement that restroom facilities be segregated based on gender assigned at birth. The Republican issued an opinion in response to a request from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office, according to the Kansas Reflector.

Kelly’s office said the law was overly vague and wanted clarity on whether it would apply even to restrooms used in Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks cabins or to skilled nursing rooms at the Kansas Office of Veterans’ Services.

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Kobach said the law should be interpreted to apply in places where people may find themselves in the same space as someone of the opposite sex assigned at birth. Restrictions on bathroom access in government-owned facilities, he said, generally don’t apply to private spaces.

“The debate surrounding SB 244 focused on the types of rooms listed in the statute — restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms — and the risks to safety and privacy when individuals of one biological sex use facilities designated for individuals of the opposite biological sex,” Kobach wrote.

That means there is no restriction, for example, on married couples sharing a space at a nursing home, no requirement to have separate bathrooms at park cabins, and no expectation that facilities impose limits on skilled nursing rooms.

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He did say, however, that state prisons must adhere to restroom restrictions, including in multi-occupancy cells. Kobach, who has a controversial record of anti-transgender interpretations of state law, said Kelly should work with the legislature on putting any clarifications into statute.

“If your answer relies on finding an ambiguity in Senate Bill 244 with the term ‘facilities,’ we ask that you work with the Legislature in the 2027 session to clarify this ambiguity,” he wrote.

Kelly notably vetoed the bill enacting sweeping restrictions on trans rights last year, but the Legislature overrode that action.

Her office said the law, as written, remains deeply vague.

“SB 244 makes no distinction based on a ‘facility’s’ purpose and instead focuses on the existence of a mere possibility of whether an individual may be in a state of undress in front of another individual,” read a letter from Justin Whitten, Gov. Laura Kelly’s chief counsel, seeking an official opinion from Kobach’s office.