BY CORIE LYNN
Recently, Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill that would ban transwomen and girls from participating in school sports.
That same day, student senators from the FHSU Student Government Association put forth a resolution from the Wichita State University SGA supporting the veto of the bill. Originally the FHSU student senators moved the resolution to emergency business and passed it, but Student Body President Hailey Reiter vetoed the resolution because of concerns about a lack of discussion.
At Thursday night’s SGA meeting, the student senators once again moved the resolution to emergency business. Several had prepared statements on why they did or did not support the resolution.
Student Body President-elect Mark Faber and Vice President-elect Ryan Stanely both voiced their concerns against the resolution.
Both stated they were in support of the transwomen athletes, but they and fellow athletes worried the higher levels of testosterone in transwomens’ systems would unbalance the competition for cis-women.
According to Faber, who stated he was a member of the Werth College of Science Technology and Mathematics, he learned in his own studies that transwomen still have higher levels of testosterone and naturally larger muscle mass.
Discussion over the original bill and the SGA resolution occurred throughout the meeting.
Legislative Affairs Director Crystal Rojas voiced her support for the resolution during her executive report at the beginning of the meeting.
“By supporting one another, we can build an environment where everybody can benefit,” she said.
Sen. Will Barfield was also in favor of the resolution, citing the bill does truly take into account a transwoman’s hormones and that medical professionals believed there was no basis for transwomen athletes having the upperhand against their cis-gender peers.
During the open forum, FHSU students Tim Krug, president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, and Coralie Correa voiced their support for the resolution and transyouth.
After lengthy discussion, the resolution failed.
A resolution calling for the next administration to begin the process of creating an underserved senator seat was also moved to emergency business that evening.
The language of the resolution urged the process to begin in the first month of office. The senators voted to amend the requirement to give the new administration until the 2022-23 SGA elections.
Ultimately, the senators tabled the resolution to give them time to work out kinks, such as changes to the SGA election process.
The majority of the meeting was spent in discussion of these resolutions.
Only the executive staff gave reports, with Haley Reiter informing the Student Senate the Student Emergency Assistance fund was completely depleted and its application closed. The funding received from the FHSU Day of Giving has yet to be announced.
Ending the meeting with a few announcements, such as pre-health majors now being required to take only seven upper-level credits compared to 11, the meeting adjourned.
The FHSU Student Senate will host its last meeting of the semester May 6.