On May 20, a woman in Kansas was instructed to leave the restroom for helping her disabled son.

Karen Wild is the mother to her son Ellis Dunville, who is on the autism spectrum, has a seizure disorder and is nonverbal. Part of her weekly routine is visiting the Wichita Public Library to meet up with Dunville’s grandmother, who helps Wild take care of him.

This incident comes weeks after the state signed SB180, which is informally known as the “Women’s Bill of Rights”. The law is intended to “ensure current protections for women’s spaces are not eroded,” said Republican Rep. Brenda Landwehr during the House Committee hearing on Mar. 31.

Wild has been making her trips to the library for years. Not once did any library staff or patrons object to her bringing her son into the women’s restroom, let alone confronted for helping her son.

SB180 targets public facilities, including libraries like the ones Wild frequents at. In addition, the new law also requires the state to count people for data-gathering purposes as either male or female based on their birth sex. It also prevents trans Kansans from changing their sex or name on their legal forms, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate.

“Everyone’s scared,” a trans Kansan told KMUW last week. Another is considering detransitioning.

Despite the fear and threats surrounding SB180, Kansas-based trans activist Jae Moyer took it to Twitter to share their persistence.

“You can try to erase me from state statute with bills like SB180, but you can’t erase me from Kansas. I still exist. I am still nonbinary,” they said.

On Reddit’s r/Wichita subreddit, user HimboHistrionics believes bans like SB180 are inconvenient for those outside of trans communities, too. “There’s not even a sweeping practical way to enforce stuff like this,” they said in a comment regarding Wild’s incident at the library. “Proponents of these bans think they have some internal gaydar equivalent for what looks passing, but it doesn’t translate in the real world.”

This legislative wave of banning access to bathrooms is one aspect of the larger attack on trans and nonbinary communities seen this year. In April, Gov. Burgum signed its anti-trans bathroom bill in North Dakota. Just last month, Florida’s Gov. DeSantis signed four major anti-trans bills, one in which would arrest trans people in restrooms.

Wild tells The Topeka Capital-Journal that she believes SB180 helped prompt the incident. She also says that the ongoing efforts to ban trans people from restrooms throughout the country is partially responsible for the incident.

“There isn’t anything I can think of that has changed except that they heard about that law and decided they needed to be emboldened by it somehow,” Wild told The Topeka Capital-Journal. “I can’t explain it any other way.”

Sean Jones, Wichita Public Library’s spokesperson confirmed that the incident occurred, but noted that the restroom policies have not been changed as of recently.

Jones said that he has “With this particular situation, it was simply a mishandled customer service moment. Our staff was curious about the situation, and ultimately offered a solution for future uses in the form of telling them of the three family restrooms available at the main library.”

Wild, who has a trans niece that helps Dunville, shared her concerns about the future of her son, who will continue to need help from his loved ones.

“My niece identifies as a woman and then you’d have, in some people’s eyes, two men in the woman’s bathroom. So, I’m not entirely without motivation here, but I did not ever consider that it would be something that would affect me and [Dunville] when we were out.

She also tells The Topeka Capital-Journal that she will continue to help her son, even if it means using the library’s gender-neutral restroom.

“But if there’s not a family bathroom, Ellis is going into the bathroom with me.”

If you are a trans or nonbinary person in Kansas, Kansas Legal Services and ACLU of Kansas partnered up to inform residents on how to change their gender markers before restrictions start on July 1. You can learn more about it here.