Kansas law doesn’t authorize genital exams for student athletes

CLAIM: A new law in Kansas authorizes genital inspections of children in order to play sports.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The law, which bars transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, doesn’t mention anything about genital inspections. It remains unclear how the law will be enforced in different age groups.

THE FACTS: Social media posts are claiming a new transgender athlete ban in Kansas gives school officials the authority to look at children’s genitals in order for them to play sports.

“Kansas Republicans want to inspect the genitals of your children,” says the narrator of a video shared widely on Instagram this week. “They want to do it so bad that they overrode a veto from the governor. Every single child in the state of Kansas would have to endure a genital exam to be allowed to play sports.”

The clip references news stories about teachers accused of student sex abuse to suggest teachers can’t be trusted to conduct these kinds of exams.

But the new law, which passed when the Legislature overrode the governor’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, doesn’t include any language about genital inspections. Republicans who supported the bill say this wasn’t its goal.

“There’s absolutely no language or intent in the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act to require any type of genitalia inspection and that will not be the outcome of the bill,” tweeted House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican.

“Absolutely not true,” said Rep. Barb Wasinger, a Republican from western Kansas, who requested that the bill be introduced in the Committee on Education. Wasinger said existing requirements that students submit a birth certificate and an annual sports physical would be sufficient to enforce the law.

The legislation, HB 2238, stipulates that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.” It makes the Kansas State High School Activities Association and the governing boards of each college and university responsible for designing rules to enforce the ban.

The state association only governs school sports for seventh grade and above, but Wasinger said students in lower grades were included in the language of the bill to comply with Title IX, the federal law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education.

Bill Faflick, executive director of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, said students are currently required to have an annual physical exam to participate in sports. The physical exam doesn’t include a genital exam unless a hernia is suspected.

“I do not anticipate that physician directed protocol will change,” Faflick said.

Still, the state association has yet to announce rules to comply with the new law. Faflick said it expects to be ready to address it after meetings later in April. Existing policy allows transgender students to participate in sports, with schools reviewing each student’s case individually.

The Kansas law comes after several other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, with supporters arguing they keep competition fair.

Opponents say the trend is an attempt to erase transgender people from participation in American society – and one that’s not necessary given the scarcity of transgender female athletes.

In Kansas, according to the state association, just three transgender girls competed in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.