Kansas latest state to enact transgender ban

Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.

The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, and came a day after state lawmakers passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.

The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights.

LGBTQ-rights advocates say its part of a national campaign from rightwing traditionalists to erase transgender, non-binary, gender-queer and gender-fluid people from American society.

Across the U.S., supporters of such bans argue that they keep competition fair. Track and field last month barred transgender athletes from international competition, adopting the same rules that swimming did last year.

College basketball: UConn’s victory over San Diego State in the men’s national championship game is the lowest-viewed final on record. The Huskies’ 76-59 win averaged 14.69 million viewers on CBS. The previous low was 15.99 in 2018, when Villanova beat Michigan on TBS. It was still the most-watched program on television Monday night. This year’s tournament averaged 9.55 million, down 7% from last year but up 4% from 2021.

Soccer: Karim Benzema scored a hat trick as Real Madrid overturned host Barcelona’s advantage in the Copa del Rey semifinals with a resounding 4-0 win to reach the final for the first time in nearly a decade. Vinícius Júnior also scored as Madrid advanced 4-1 on aggregate.