Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed an anti-trans bathroom bill Friday, after Republicans passed it using a procedure that allowed them to bring the legislation up for a vote without a public hearing.

As the Kansas Reflector notes, the version of Senate Bill 244 passed by the state Senate’s Republican majority originated in the state’s House Judiciary Committee as House Bill 2426. That bill would have required Kansas driver’s licenses and birth certificates to indicate a person’s sex assigned at birth, regardless of their gender identity.

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But in late January, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the bill that would have required government buildings in the state to segregate spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms by sex and banned trans people from using facilities that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Notably, the committee gave no public notice that it would add the bathroom ban to the bill prior to voting on it.

Worse, after approving the amendment, the committee used a procedure known as “gut-and-go” which allowed them to place the contents of H.B. 2426 into an entirely unrelated bill, S.B. 244, that had already been passed by the state Senate. The maneuver allowed the Kansas Senate to sidestep public input and vote on the legislation without a hearing.

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The state Senate approved S.B. 244 in a 30–9 vote, also along party lines, late last month.

According to the Kansas Reflector, Gov. Kelly cited “numerous and significant consequences” as the reason for her veto of S.B. 244.

“If your grandfather is in a nursing home in a shared room, as a granddaughter, you would not be able to visit him. If your sister is living in a dorm at K-State, as a brother, you would not be able to visit her in her room,” Kelly said in a statement. “I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans.”

Similarly, Kansas House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard (D) noted in a statement Friday that S.B. 244 would have potentially impacted shared hospital, nursing home, rehabilitation, and treatment rooms, as well as dorm rooms and sporting events. He also criticized the way in which Republicans passed the bill.

“The bill was rushed through the Legislature without meaningful public input or debate,” Woodard said, according to the Reflector. “Beyond its flawed process, the legislation targets a small and vulnerable group of Kansans while creating sweeping and unintended consequences for communities across our state.”

As the outlet notes, S.B. 244 now returns to the state Legislature, where Republicans likely have enough votes to override Kelly’s veto.

American Civil Liberties Union senior staff attorney Harper Seldin told the Reflector that Kansas lawmakers should seriously consider whether S.B. 244 should become law in its current form, regardless of how they feel about trans people.

The bill, he said, is “unique” in that it contains escalating penalties up to $125,000 for local government entities that fail to comply. It also allows individuals to bring private legal action against violators.

The bill’s “provision regarding municipal liability is particularly harmful,” Seldin said, “because it puts the price of this kind of discrimination on local taxpayers in a way that feels deeply unjust.”

S.B. 244, Seldin said, “is particularly poorly worded and constructed in ways that are going to create confusion and anxiety, and certainly real material harm in the event it’s enforced.”

“I think that’s exactly the intent of bills like this, including the poor wording, which is to create the kind of fear and uncertainty that causes trans folks to self police and over-comply, even in restrooms where they are perfectly permitted to be,” he added.

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