The state Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee heard testimony today on a bill which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Kansas Act Against Discrimination.

Currently the act protects Kansas residents from being discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, or ancestry.

Although Kansas has a large older population, discrimination on the basis of age is not mentioned in either the existing law or the proposed bill.

The legislation, SB 169, defines sexual orientation as “male or female heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality by inclination, practice or expression” and gender identity as “having or expressing a self image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s gender.”

Several representatives from the Kansas Equality Coalition testified as proponents of the legislation, including the group’s counsel Pedro Luis Irigonegaray. Irigonegaray claims he has been targeted with death threats and hate mail as a result of his work representing homosexual and transgender Kansas residents

“I can not remain indifferent in the presence of inequality,” Irigonegaray told the committee. “If we do not oppose bigotry, with our silence we endorse it.”

Irigonegaray argued that currently many of Kansas’s homosexual and transgendered citizens are suffering from discrimination and said he was optimistic that the legislation would pass.

“I think step by step we are evolving and getting closer to the day all our citizens will be treated equally and I think today may be that day,” Irigonegaray told Kansas Liberty.

Judy Smith, state director of Kansas’ Concerned Women of America testified as an opponent.

Smith argued that homosexual and transgendered residents would not fit in the category of discrimination because discrimination is based on unchangeable characteristics and political powerlessness.

“Activists promoting this behavior are hardly politically powerless,” Smith said.

Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Republican from Hiawatha, questioned whether or not increasing protection for the homosexual community would result in a loss of protection for other Kansas residents.

Rep. Jan Pauls, a Democrat from Hutchinson, made a similar argument in her testimony opposing the measure.

“The definition of sexual orientation in this includes everyone in Kansas,” Pauls said. “If everyone is in a protected class than we fail to protect those who are actually being discriminated against.”

- Holly Smith

Resources

• Read the bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/169.pdf

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