Legislating restrooms and religious clubs: How would bills affect KU?

Kansas lawmakers in the past week have advanced a couple pieces of legislation that could affect certain Kansas University populations: transgender students who need to go to the bathroom, and students who want to join a religious club they don’t necessarily agree with.

One was just signed into law, and I’m unqualified to guess whether the other is going anywhere, but I did do some poking around to find out how they compare with the status quo at KU.

First, restrooms.

In short, two separate but identical bills proposed in the House and Senate would require transgender students at Kansas public schools and universities to use restrooms and locker rooms designated for their chromosomal sex at birth. (This story provides more details.)

With help from KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, I determined that with the exception of a KU Libraries policy that prohibits use of library restrooms “for purposes other than which they are intended,” KU doesn’t currently have any rules or regulations about where people can go to the bathroom.

There are a number of single-occupancy restrooms on campus (often called family restrooms), some of which have signage specifying that they are gender-neutral — even though by definition they already are. It doesn’t seem this bill would apply to those, but rather only restrooms that are designated for one sex or another.

The Kansas Board of Regents doesn’t have any overarching bathroom policies, either, but says federal laws prohibiting sex-based discrimination would dictate what’s required. According to a memo from the Regents legal team, transgender students seeking to use restrooms designated for the sex they identify as have repeatedly won court cases, and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has also ruled that they can use the restroom of their choice.

Next, religious clubs.

Gov. Sam Brownback signed this bill into law Tuesday, and it will take effect in July — although, according to The Associated Press, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled nearly six years ago that universities can require membership in such groups to be open to all. The bill will allow college religious groups to restrict membership to like-minded students.

Currently at KU, all registered KU organizations are open to all students, KU spokesman Joe Monaco said. Whether they actually receive university funding or not (clubs often get money in the form of student fee revenue) doesn’t matter, Monaco said — all registered KU organizations are eligible to request it so they’re all in the same category and follow the same rules.

There is an overarching Regents policy specifically addressing club membership. Relevant passages:

The established policy of the Board of
Regents prohibits discrimination on
the basis of age, race, color,
religion, sex, marital status,
national origin, physical handicap or
disability, status as a Vietnam Era
Veteran, sexual orientation or other
factors which cannot be lawfully
considered, within the state
universities. All fraternal and campus
related organizations shall follow
this policy in the selection of their
members, except the prohibition
against sex discrimination shall not
apply to social fraternities or
sororities which are excluded from the
application of Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972 (20
U.S.C. Sec. 1681 et seq.).

The right of organizations to
establish standards for membership is
acknowledged, provided that all
students are afforded equal
opportunity to meet those standards.
Just as all students have the right to
choose those with whom they would
associate on the campus, an
organization shall have the right to
select its members subject to these
principles.

There are currently 36 registered KU organizations in the “Religious” category, according to a search of groups listed on RockChalkCentral.ku.edu. Those include lots of Christian groups, several Jewish ones, the Muslim Student Association and the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, to name a few.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.