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Kansas is part of a national battle over transgender discrimination in the workplace. Attorney General Derek Schmidt joined a 16 state group to take the case to the Supreme Court.
It all started when a Michigan funeral home fired a worker for coming out as transgender. That began a heated legal battle. Kansas is part of a group of 16 states who are defending the funeral home's decision.
Local transgender activist Stephanie Mott says Kansas's involvement is disappointing, but not out of character.
"I'm not really surprised. Kansas has never really recognized transgender identity and the fact that we're human beings and just like everyone else," Mott said.
The case comes down to a legal argument over whether or not a civil rights act from the 60s protects transgender people from discrimination in the work place. Kansas and the other states are saying it doesn't. Steve Cann is a political science professor at Washburn University.
"They like a narrow interpretation of the term sex in the 1964 Civil Rights Act which forbids discrimination on the base of sex. They don't want sexual preference to be part of gender or sex," Cann said.