'Everyone's scared': Transgender Kansans brace for sweeping new law to take effect

Kansas SB 180 will bring a host of changes, including limiting trans residents’ access to bathrooms. Much is still unknown about how it'll be enforced.
WICHITA, Kansas — Thea Howard worried that coming out as a transgender woman would cost her the job she’s held for six-plus years.

“That was my fear — that I would be fired when I came out,” she said.

When it became unbearable to keep hiding who she was at work, she told the board members of the non-profit she directs in El Dorado. It went well — they were supportive and she’s relieved to finally be able to live authentically.

But Howard’s world has been thrown into new uncertainty as Kansas prepares to enact one of the most sweeping laws restricting transgender rights in the country.