{"id":93804,"date":"2025-08-13T09:21:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=93804"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:21:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:21:59","slug":"lawmakers-use-budget-to-police-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/08\/13\/lawmakers-use-budget-to-police-pronouns\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Use Budget to Police Pronouns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA \u2014 Kansas state and university employees were told they must remove pronouns from their email signatures and all other work communications as a result of a directive lawmakers inserted into the state budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget proviso, which threatens constitutional rights to free speech, requires state agencies to remove all diversity, equity and inclusion programming, training and positions. State employees must remove any \u201cgender ideology\u201d in email signatures and work communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what was going to be accomplished by this,\u201d said Rep. Mike Amyx, D-Lawrence. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see a positive outcome on it. The potential for somebody to get in trouble because of this bill is real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amyx, a ranking minority leader on the higher education budget committee, said the provision puts state universities and their faculty in uncomfortable situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even have a direction that I can tell them right now,\u201d Amyx said. \u201cI\u2019m just concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Kansas announced last month that it would comply with a directive from the Kansas Board of Regents. KU employees had until July 31 to remove pronouns from their email signature blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KU chancellor Doug Girod released a statement July 22 outlining the rules of the ordinance, ending the message stating the KU community is founded on \u201crespect and support\u201d for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression wrote in a July 28 letter to the Board of Regents that universities following the guidance infringe upon employees\u2019 First Amendment rights. FIRE said the language in the guidance is overly broad and vague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe offered to work with the Board to craft alternative guidance that clarifies the scope of the law consistent with the First Amendment,\u201d the letter said. \u201cHowever, the President of the Board has told the media he is unlikely to change the guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization\u2019s letter said it will continue to fight for the rights of employees affected by this new anti-free speech law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican who is seeking his party\u2019s nomination for governor, said in a statement he is proud to have championed this legislation, following President Donald Trump\u2019s lead on cutting DEI programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2009\u2019DEI\u2019 programs promote divisive environments that pressure students and faculty to adopt specific viewpoints, undermining academics and setting Kansas universities back,\u201d Masterson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Heather Meyer, D-Overland Park, said she voted against the budget because of its consequences for minority communities across the state. She said the budget proviso proves legislators\u2019 lack of understanding of the LGBTQ+ and minority communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just deplorable,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s codifying hatred. Universities have typically been beacons of free speech. To turn into this is awful. We just have to keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said many state employees won\u2019t be able to risk not complying with the budget requirement, especially without a clear understanding of the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor people who are actively removing their pronouns and don\u2019t feel safe in keeping them on there and protest, there\u2019s absolutely no judgment about that,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cEverybody needs to support their family and feel safe speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lawrence Trans Coalition publicly denounced KU\u2019s decision to comply with the budget requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coalition called for \u201coverwhelming pushback\u201d and recommended wearing pronoun pins to work or calling attention to the budget requirement in email signatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is genuinely harrowing to see them so quickly comply with an anti-trans bill that has no explicit enforcement mechanisms spelled out within the text,\u201d said Lawrence Trans Coalition politics and public relations chair Isaac Johnson. \u201cThe implication here is that the Kansas Legislature views the mere concept of disclosing pronouns as political extremism that must be oppressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some state employees have said the forced removal of pronouns inherently targets the trans community. The bill does not outline what else can and can\u2019t be in an email signature, such as \u201cMr.\u201d or \u201cMrs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a Kansas state employee wanted to end an email with \u2018God bless,\u2019 they would be allowed. If they wanted to mention their partner, a holiday they celebrate, their heritage, they would be allowed to do that,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe sharing of pronouns is a practice meant to signal to others that they are safe to disclose their trans status with them. This ban actively robs state employees from promoting that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA \u2014 Kansas state and university employees were told they must remove pronouns from their email signatures and all other work communications as a result of a directive lawmakers inserted into the state budget. The budget proviso, which threatens constitutional rights to free speech, requires state agencies to remove all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[596,1052],"class_list":["post-93804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-university-of-kansas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}