TOPEKA — The chair of the Kansas Democratic LGBTQ Caucus has denounced U.S. House candidate Nancy Boyda’s opposition to transgender women’s participation in organized athletic programs for girls and women as “hateful drivel.”
In a statement promoting her campaign for Congress in the 2nd District, Boyda said she was against transgender girls participating on girls’ sports teams. In an interview, she made it clear that she was focused on excluding postpubertal transgender women from single-sex programs for girls and women.
Brandi Armstrong, chairwoman of the state party’s caucus, said Boyda’s decision to sidestep the Kansas Democratic Party’s platform and refuse to allow a transgender girl to compete against other girls required the caucus to act to support Boyda’s opponent in the August primary. Armstrong argued that Boyda’s campaign statements made transgender children into political punching bags in her campaign.
“We typically choose not to endorse candidates in primary elections unless they are LGBTQ+,” Armstrong said, “but her statements start out trying to portray herself as an ally and then veer wildly into transphobia. This is not OK, and we refuse to sit idly by and let her spew this hateful garbage without any repercussions.”
Armstrong said the caucus endorsed Democratic candidate Matt Kleinman, a community health development activist from Kansas County, Kansas, who played college basketball at the University of Kansas.
Kleinman said he appreciates the support of the caucus. He expressed support for President Joe Biden’s administration’s efforts to protect transgender rights. He praised Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision to veto a bill that would have prohibited transgender girls and women from competing on the same teams as other girls and women. He said decisions regarding transgender youth participation in sports should be made by local athletic associations and leagues.
“Contrary to my opponent’s comments, my goal is to build a future for Kansas where we work toward common goals where everyone can thrive in an environment where they feel welcome,” Kleinman said. “We should not discriminate against anyone.”
He said the 2024 congressional elections should focus on lowering the cost of living, raising the minimum wage, expanding access to affordable housing and health care and protecting reproductive freedom.
“Too much”
Boyda, who defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Jim Ryun and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009, released a statement on June 24 saying the majority of female athletes and their families want a level playing field in sports competitions.
She said the protections put in place by the Biden administration to protect the rights of transgender students under Title IX are legitimate, but allowing transgender girls to compete in skills against other girls jeopardizes the competitive balance of sports.
“They fear that practice time, trips and family commitments will all be lost,” Boyda said. “Contrary to the Kansas Democratic Party platform, I do not support transgender girls participating in girls’ sports.”
In an interview Tuesday, Boyda said she had no intention of depriving young transgender girls of the opportunity to play sports. She was committed to preventing transgender women who hit puberty in high school and college from competing against other women in school and recreational leagues.
She said the refusal of sports governing bodies to provide appropriate quotas for more mature transgender women had inflamed public opinion against the transgender community as a whole.
“This is putting Kansans in a disproportionate strain on their communities,” Boyda said. “We’re heading for a train wreck.”
Draw the line at adolescence
Boyda’s original campaign statement on transgender sports referenced her decision several years ago to break with Democrats on federal immigration reform. She also referenced her son’s decision to come out as gay as a teenager. The statement also included a reminder that she had advocated for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, saying “people should be able to live the life they want without government interference.”
She acknowledged that transgender men and women are often isolated and lonely, and she said suicide rates among transgender people are heartbreakingly high.
“I firmly believe that what consenting adults do in the bedroom is their own business and that transgender people should be protected from harm,” Boyda said, “but when it comes to transgender girls in sports, the issue is no longer a private relationship between consenting adults. I believe there are others involved and their voices need to be heard.”
She urged Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita, to work to pass state legislation in the Kansas Legislature that would provide protections for transgender Kansans.
“We know that there are a lot of people out there who really hate transgender people and are violent towards them,” Boyda said.
In the 2023 legislative session, Masterson, Hawkins and other Republicans passed the Women’s Sports Fairness Act, overriding Kelly’s veto of the bill, which would make Kansas law requiring transgender athletes to compete from kindergarten through college based on their gender identity at birth.
Advocates said it was urgent that states mandate that women’s student athletic teams be made up only of people who are “biologically” female, arguing in part that transgender women and girls have a physical advantage over cisgender women and girls.
During the 2024 session, the state legislature failed to override Governor Kelly’s veto of a bill that would have prohibited young people from receiving transgender medical care. Governor Kelly said that if the state legislature “paid this much attention to the other 99.8 percent of our students,” Kansas would have the best schools in the world.
