TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans and Democrats in Kansas agree that concerns about the economy drove voters to support President Donald Trump by a 16% margin.
They also know that ads from Trump and others targeting transgender rights resonated with voters. So while Kansas Republicans say property tax cuts are their top priority, they also are pushing to ban gender-affirming care for young people, including puberty blockers, hormones and, even though they are rare for minors, surgeries. They say that, too, resonates strongly with voters.
“It carries so much more emotional weight,” said Republican state Rep. Ron Bryce, a doctor from southeastern Kansas. “We’re talking about children and our future.”
As lawmakers have gone into session in many states, Republicans are broadly emboldened by GOP electoral successes to continue pushing state-level bills to curtail transgender rights.
As was the case in 2023 and 2024, dozens of bills are pending in mostly red-state legislatures aimed at issues such as which bathroom transgender people can use in public buildings, whether transgender people can use their gender identity on their driver's licenses and whether transgender girls can play on girls sports teams. In Texas alone, Republicans have filed more than 30 measures.
Democrats are reckoning with voter backlash while not abandoning what they see as a civil rights issue.
Kansas state Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said it’s hard to conclude that Kansas voters favor transgender rights after Republicans picked up three state House seats and two state Senate seats.
Republicans in the state think they’ll be able to ban gender-affirming care for young people this year after previously failing because the added Republican members will allow them to override a veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
“Transgender people are going to be facing discrimination at the national level for four years," Carmichael said Tuesday. “I’m sure that some of my colleagues in the Kansas Legislature will try to find a way to one-up even what Donald Trump is doing.”
Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign, signed executive orders on his first day in office Monday declaring that the federal government would recognize only two sexes: male and female.
Federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape survivors will be segregated by sex as defined by the order, and federal taxpayer money will not be able to be used to fund “transition services,” which would appear to cover people incarcerated in federal prisons.
In the U.S., about 300,000 youths ages 13 to 17, or 1.4%, are transgender, according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at the UCLA School of Law. Among adults, the figure is 0.5%, for 1.3 million transgender Americans who are 18 or older.
At the state level, legislators anticipate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bans on gender-affirming care are constitutional. The court heard arguments in December on a Tennessee law that prohibits gender-affirming care for minors. The justices appeared likely to uphold the law, though a ruling isn’t expected until the summer.
About half of voters in the 2024 election said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far, while about 2 in 10 said it’s been about right, and a similar share said it hasn’t gone far enough, according to AP VoteCast.
Voters were split on at least one specific proposal. AP VoteCast found that slightly more than half of voters opposed laws that ban gender-affirming medical treatment, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for transgender minors, while a little under half were in favor.
At least 26 states have banned or restricted gender-affirming care for people under 18.
Harleigh Walker, a transgender 17-year-old high school senior in Alabama where the care is banned, said it’s astounding that states are considering legislation that harms constituents like her. She said she’s likely to leave the South for college, and her family is also considering moving.
“We’re not hurting anyone,” Walker said in a telephone interview. “Our existence and our right to healthcare, bathroom use, et cetera, it’s not hurting anyone.”
Every major U.S. medical group, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and said gender-affirming treatments can be medically necessary and are supported by evidence. Doctors, parents and young people have said such care reduces depression and suicidal thoughts in transgender youths.
Conservatives nonetheless often describe the care as potentially harmful. Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said lawmakers are trying to protect young people.
“Children under the age of 18 are not equipped with the knowledge or maturity to make a decision that permanently affects the rest of their lives,” he said in a newsletter earlier this month.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates fear the next step is restrictions on care for adults. Florida is the only state that has done that, through there have been proposals in at least two other states.
Mo Jenkins, a 25-year-old transgender woman who ran unsuccessfully for a Texas House seat in Houston last year, described the possibility as terrifying. Her state banned gender-affirming care for minors in 2023.
“It was never going to stop with children,” she said.
The discussions among Democrats in red or swing states reflect the memory of Trump ads that blasted their presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, as being “for they/them” while “President Trump is for you.”
Democratic Kansas state Sen. Cindy Holscher focused her reelection campaign in affluent Kansas City suburbs on education and taxes, capturing 61% of the vote.
“Democrats have a tendency to want to lean on those social issues, but they aren’t necessarily winning issues,” she said.
Holscher, Carmichael and other Democrats say they will still oppose measures restricting transgender rights.
“Civil rights are in the DNA of Democrats,” said Joan Wagnon, a former Kansas Democratic Party chair, state lawmaker and Topeka mayor.
DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Lathan reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, left, R-Wichita, speaks to reporters during a news conference following the annual State of the State address, as Senate President Ty Masterson, right, R-Andover, watches, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
A small flag promoting LGBTQ+ rights sits on the desk of state Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, D-Lenexa, in the House chamber as Republicans prepare to push for a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces began withdrawing from a key Gaza corridor on Sunday, Israeli officials said, part of Israel's commitments under a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead but faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension.
Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south that Israel used as a military zone during the war.
At the start of the ceasefire last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north, sending hundreds of thousands streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. The withdrawal of forces from the area will fulfill another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war.
However, the sides appear to have made little progress on negotiating the deal's second phase, which is meant to extend the truce and lead to the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce. Netanyahu is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal.
Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a 23-year-old Palestinian woman who was eight months pregnant was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation.
Since it began on Jan. 19, the ceasefire deal has faced repeated obstacles and disagreements between the sides, underscoring its fragility. But it has held, raising hopes that the devastating war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.
On Sunday, cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses Netzarim. Under the deal, Israel is supposed to allow the cars to cross through uninspected, and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands" and that it thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”
The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss troop movement with the media, did not disclose how many soldiers were withdrawing. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the truce.
During the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza. The deal also stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.
In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.” But details beyond that are unclear and repeated stumbling blocks throughout the first phase and the deep mistrust between the sides have cast doubt on whether they can nail down the extension.
Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.
Netanyahu meanwhile is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated. He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home and want to deal to continue, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed on Saturday stunned the nation.
Complicating things further is a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Palestinian territory. Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world have rejected it outright.
The suggested plan is saddled with moral, legal and practical obstacles. But it may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic by Trump, to try to ratchet up pressure on Hamas or as an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. That grand deal appeared to be rattled on Sunday as Saudi Arabia condemned remarks by Netanyahu who said Palestinians could create their state in that territory.
Saudi Arabia said his remarks “aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”
In an interview Thursday with Israel’s Channel 14, Netanyahu said: “The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.”
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians according to local health authorities who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Vast parts of the territory have been obliterated in the fighting, leaving many Palestinians returning to damaged or destroyed homes.
Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the war and has intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation in the north of the territory. The shooting of the pregnant woman, Sundus Shalabi, happened in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations against Palestinian militants in the territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry also said that Shalabi’s husband was critically wounded by the gunfire.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday the expansion of the Israeli military operation, which started in the city of Jenin several weeks ago. He said the operation was meant to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold in the occupied West Bank.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
FILE - Israeli soldiers drive near the northern Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers wave to the camera from an APC as they cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)
Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
