The Gender Reveal Party Podcast has released an interview with Kansas State Representative Stephanie Byers (District 86), the first Native American transgender person elected to state office in the United States.
The interview focuses on the issues facing the state of Kansas, Rep. Byers’ experiences as a transwoman on the campaign trail and with her colleagues in the Kansas State House, and the anti-trans legislation being introduced in Kansas and across the country.
The episode also has personal insights about Byers’ coming out as her authentic self while working as a band teacher in Wichita, how she experiences her cultural heritage as a member of the Chickasaw Nation and her identity as a transperson, her marriage, and differences of privilege she experienced while the world perceived her as man and now that she is perceived as a transwoman.
Byers and The Gender Reveal Party Podcast host, Lawrence’s Jay Pryor, address the anti-trans legislation introduced in Kansas during the last legislative session and how many prominent political candidates for office have made anti-trans messaging a central part of their campaigns.
“Isn’t it a shame that their campaigns are so shallow that they have nothing better to talk about than to pick on trans kids–that there is no more substance to it than that?,” said Rep. Byers.
“We have tremendous problems…Kansas is running out of water. We need to be actively looking at what we can do to best use the resources we have and to give nature the opportunity to recharge the water that we have…We need to focus in on the housing crisis that we have…We can get Medicaid expanded and save medicine in rural Kansas.”
Addressing the sponsors of this type of legislation, Pryor said, “Don’t you have something better to do? We have children literally in our state that…the only meal they get is at school. We have kids hungry…and you want to focus on trans kids playing sports? It’s maddening to me. Why are you so obsessed with trans people when we have so many other problems that are huge?”
Listen to the entire interview at https://anchor.fm/jay-pryor5