photo by: Contributed Photo

Suzanne Valdez was elected to serve as Douglas County district attorney in November 2020.

The Douglas County district attorney will not prosecute cases arising from the new Kansas law that bars transgender people from using restrooms, locker rooms and other public facilities that align with their gender identity, according to a news release Friday from her office.

The law, known as SB 180, goes into effect on July 1.

District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said she was “deeply saddened” when the law was passed and that she would use her prosecutorial discretion to not enforce it.

“In today’s chaotic world where we should treat one another with dignity, understanding and compassion, the Kansas legislature chose to create a law that is senseless and, quite frankly, potentially dangerous to our trans community,” Valdez said in the release.

The law itself is vague with regard to penalties and enforcement, as many have noted, but the fear of “vigilantes” taking action into their own hands has increased already heightened fears in the LGBTQ community.

On Thursday, as the Journal-World reported, Lawrence Mayor Lisa Larsen met with members of the Lawrence PFLAG chapter, expressed her disapproval of the law and vowed to personally fight it “tooth and nail.” She said the city’s legal staff was exploring the law and determining options for how the City Commission might respond.

Valdez said she was “watching closely” as the City of Lawrence and other jurisdictions discussed “this vague, cruel and hate-fueled anti-trans legislation.”

“Let me be clear,” she said in the release. “My office’s prosecutorial resources will not be used to prosecute anyone under SB 180. Instead, my office will continue to focus our efforts on ensuring public safety by prosecuting crimes committed against children, sexual assault matters, gun violence and all other violent crime.”