Rebekah Bruesehoff, a transgender student athlete, speaks at a press conference on LGBTQI+ rights, at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Bruesehoff spoke out against a proposed national trans sports ban being considered by Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

A federal appellate court has upheld blocking central parts of new Title IX rules from the Biden administration and granted an expedited hearing in October.?

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday to block the rules from taking effect Aug. 1, shortly before most schools begin their academic year. The rules, created by the U.S. Department of Education, were aimed at protecting students from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.?

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the majority opinion that all judges on the panel agreed the central parts of the rules should not take effect on Aug. 1.?

“It is hard to see how all of the schools covered by Title IX could comply with this wide swath of new obligations if the Rule’s definition of sex discrimination remains enjoined,” Sutton said. “Harder still, we question how the schools could properly train their teachers on compliance in this unusual setting with so little time before the start of the new school year.”?

Judge Andre Mathis wrote in a dissenting opinion that he would grant a partial stay, as requested by the Department of Education.?

“I am cognizant of Plaintiffs’ argument that the benefits of enacting the Rule’s unchallenged provisions are outweighed by the expense or confusion of phased implementation,” Mathis wrote. “But most of the expense is attributable to provisions that Plaintiffs neither directly challenge nor cite as a source of harm.”?

The lawsuit was filed by Republican attorneys general in six states — Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement that Title IX, which was established more than 50 years ago, “created equal opportunities for women and young girls in the classroom and on the field.” The Sixth Circuit ruling, he added, made it the first appellate court “to stop President Biden’s blatant assault on these fundamental protections.”?

“This ruling is a victory for common sense itself, and it’s a major relief for Kentucky families,” Coleman said. “As Attorney General and as a Dad, we’ll keep up the fight for my girls and for women across Kentucky so they can continue to fulfill their potential for the next 50 years and beyond.”

Madelyn Spalding, who works with the Kentucky LGBTQ+ youth-focused Louisville Youth Group and is a facilitator with the Kentuckiana Transgender Support Group, said it was “clear that the attorney general doesn’t care about these kids” who are part of the LGBTQ+ community in K-12 schools. She also added that as a transgender adult, she’s worried Coleman will use the arguments against the Title IX rules “as a roadmap to go after transgender adults.”

Spalding said blocking the Title IX rules would “create conditions that ostracize, exclude, erase, silence these youth with no repercussions.” Spalding added that adults who could speak up for students in these situations might lose school administrations’ support.

Spalding called it “disingenuous and harmful” to suggest that transgender kids are taking opportunities away from cisgender women or girls.

“I worry for the opportunities that are being taken away from women who are trans or cis(gender) being able to equally compete in ways that don’t boil down to essentially just their sex,” Spalding said. “It’s going to limit opportunities across the board and create social hierarchies, and what they’re doing is ingraining those — they’re enshrining those right now in the schools to keep down a certain type of student and show them there’s no place for them at the school.”

In June, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky sided with Coleman and the other five GOP attorneys general. The judge said the Department of Education “seeks to derail deeply rooted law” with its proposed Title IX rules.?

“At bottom, the Department would turn Title IX on its head by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity.’ But ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ do not mean the same thing,” Reeves wrote. “The Department’s interpretation conflicts with the plain language of Title IX and therefore exceeds its authority to promulgate regulations under that statute.”?

Established in 1972, Title IX was created to prevent “discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance,” according to the Department of Education.

Coleman’s office said in a press release that K-12 schools that failed to comply with the new Title IX rules would have risked losing federal funding. Kentucky’s public and private schools received a total of $1.1 billion in federal funding last year.

The Biden administration introduced the rules to “build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona previously said in a statement. The rules also would have rolled back Trump administration changes that narrowly defined sexual harassment and directed schools to conduct live hearings, allowing those who were accused of sexual harassment or assault to cross-examine their accusers.

The Lantern has sought comment from the U.S. Department of Education on the latest ruling.

This story was updated with additional comments.?

Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jaqueline Coleman look on as Chris Hartman with the Fairness Campaign introduces the 2024 Fairness Rally in the Capitol Rotunda. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — A bill backers say is meant to strengthen religious freedom in Kentucky but which opponents say will weaken fairness ordinances in the state passed out of a House committee Wednesday despite bipartisan concerns.?

After an hour of debate, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure 14-6.? Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, joined Democrats in voting against it. Several Republicans who voted for it said they had concerns about the bill and may change their votes on the floor.?

A few hours later, at the annual Fairness Rally in the Capitol Rotunda, LGBTQ+ advocates spoke against the bill, which garnered boos from the gathered? crowd.?

Primary Sponsor Rep. Steve Rawlings, R-Burlington, said in committee that House Bill 47 will “ensure that Kentuckians are free to live and work according to their faith without fear of being unjustly punished by their government.”?

His bill states that Kentuckians whose “religious exercise has been substantially burdened” can take legal action against others and seek various kinds of relief. This “applies to all state and local laws, administrative regulations, and ordinances,” the bill draft says.?

Opponents who testified against the measure said the bill will harm LGBTQ+ Kentuckians and is not needed.?

Bonnie Meyer, the president of the Northern Kentucky Pride Center, said with the bill “we’re stripping away the rights of LGBTQA folks” because the bill sends a message that “fairness (ordinances) don’t matter”?

Berea pastor Kent Gilbert, who spoke as a representative of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said “this bill is not helpful” because it “broadens definitions” and “makes possible the kind of discrimination that persons of integrity of every faith tradition abhor.”?

“Never once were any of our member bodies consulted about this legislation,” Gilbert said. “And I can also report to you that never once in the council that meets regularly to discuss matters that are precisely related to religious freedom have we seen an urgent need for this.”??

The debate?

Co-sponsor Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, pointed to a 2018 incident in which a Muslim woman sued the Louisville government after she was photographed at the jail without her hijab and asked to remove the religious head covering in front of men.?

The Courier Journal reported in 2019 that Clara Ruplinger was arrested after a protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ruplinger removed her head covering in a private room in which only women were present willingly but was “embarrassed, humiliated and intimidated” when she had to remove her hijab in front of men.?

Her lawyers argued at the time that her constitutional rights to religious freedom were violated by this and by the uncovered headshot being published.?

“It doesn’t seem like there’s a compelling government interest to make her take off her hijab,” Nemes said in Wednesday’s committee. “And if you’re going to do that then it’s easy to accommodate (with) women officers only. And why would it need to be published in that way, where she doesn’t have her headscarf on? That was her religious beliefs.”?

Nemes said it was “wrong” that Ruplinger could not recover in her case and sees her case as a reason the bill is “necessary.”??

“I support our fairness ordinance,” he said. “I’d like fairness ordinances to go statewide.”???

Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, and Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, both had questions about what could be protected as a religious right.?

“I have a concern that this would potentially undo one of the bills that we passed in 2020…which outlawed female genital mutilation,” Moser said. “As I understand … it’s a religious practice in some areas. … We also have laws against child abuse and domestic violence protections.”??

Backers promised HB47 would not undermine any of those protections.?

“There’s some people that have a religion that will do things like: ‘you have to have sex with a virgin,’” Stevenson said. “You have to do particular things and they call it a religion. Why are we now trying to give anybody the power to claim a religion to do bad?”?

Rawlings replied, “It’s not power that this bill seeks at all. It’s protections and it’s not about discrimination either. It’s about respect of all. We need to be (respectful) of all persons.”?

Louisville Democrat Rep. Keturah Herron asked specifically about a “discriminatory” case involving Sunrise Children’s Services’ refusal to place children with LGBTQ+ families. The agency cited religious freedom in a contract “standoff” with the state, The Courier Journal reported in 2021, as they argued for their right to not accept same-sex couples for foster or adoption.?

“That was a discriminatory situation,” said Herron, who in 2022 became Kentucky’s first openly gay House member. “If I wanted to go through Sunrise Services to help our young people in the state, they would have the right to discriminate and tell me ‘no,’ that they would not place a child with me.”?

Rawlings said that was “not the reason I brought the bill forward” and that “my intention was to protect people of faith to be able to practice their religious beliefs.”?

“I’m sorry that you feel that way about it,” Rawlings told Herron. “But we’re looking at a broader protection of religious rights for people across the commonwealth, that they can practice their religion according to what they believe.”?

“I do have a strong Christian faith and background,” Herron said. “However, I do think that we have to be very careful when we say that based on your religious belief that you’re allowed to discriminate against people. That is not what we need to be doing here in this commonwealth, nor across the nation. And basically, this is what this bill says.”?

Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, sponsored (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A bill that would curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in Kentucky’s public universities advanced from a legislative committee Thursday after undergoing several changes.

The original Senate Bill 6 would have allowed employees and students to sue public universities and colleges on grounds they were discriminated against for rejecting “divisive concepts.” Under the committee substitute version, the Kentucky attorney general would have the authority to bring civil legal actions against universities that do not comply with the law. Universities and colleges also would be required to publish course descriptions, syllabi, assigned or recommended textbooks online.?

The revised bill also says new student orientation programs offered by public universities and colleges must include the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, have discussion and resources on “the principles and importance of free speech and viewpoint diversity,” written and verbal notice of the attorney general’s power to bring civil action against universities that do not comply with the legislation, and more.?

The bill passed through the Senate Education Committee on a party-line vote, with 10 Republicans voting in favor of it and two Democrats voting against it.?

Opponents of the bill warned the measure could roll back inclusion of marginalized groups on college campuses, while supporters said it would protect intellectual diversity for conservatives.?

SB 6 is one of a few anti-DEI bills filed in Kentucky this session, but has been the first to receive a committee hearing. Nine GOP senators have joined as co-sponsors.?

The bill’s primary sponsor, Senate Republican Whip Mike Wilson, brought a University of Kentucky student and a University of Louisville professor to speak against DEI programs. Wilson said his intention is to counter a trend of professors and scholars being denied promotions because they “do not conform to liberal ideologies” in public institutions.?

“The discriminatory concept prohibitions listed in this bill do not prohibit diversity initiatives,” Wilson said. “They prohibit initiatives that would tend to pit ethnic groups or possibly two genders against each other. I think that when the prohibitions and discriminatory concepts are reviewed, the vast majority of Kentucky will find the limitations to be common sense and uncontroversial.”?

The legislation mandates that required courses and mandatory trainings cannot present “discriminatory concepts” such as:?

• One race or sex is inherently superior or inferior to another race or sex
• An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously
• An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex
• Promotes or advocates the violent overthrow of the United States government
• Promotes division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class, or class of people
• The rule of law does not exist, but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups?

Senate Democratic Floor Leader Gerald Neal, of Louisville, said when casting his no vote that such legislation would not advance Kentucky, but move the state backward.?

“We are in the midst of racism and it’s painful for everybody. And we will struggle together and individually to free ourselves from this malady,” Neal said. “It’s not good. We all know that. It affects people differently.”?

Testimony

Only Wilson’s guests spoke in favor of the bill. About five speakers opposed it, including people who work in higher education.?

Seated next to Wilson, Rebekah Keith, an English major at UK, testified that after not being hired as a dormitory resident adviser during her freshman year, she had a follow-up meeting to receive feedback on her interview. There, she said, she was told she “didn’t have experience being an ‘other.’”?

Later as a student in a women’s literature class, Keith said the syllabus included a policy to not allow comments that were “homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, sexist, ableist, classist or otherwise offensive, particularly toward protected groups.” The penalty would be to be removed from the class for the day and lose points, Keith said.?

“As someone who believes that there are only two genders and that men cannot become women, this was problematic,” she said.?

Keith continued, and said she spoke with a professor to “ensure that my first amendment rights were going to be protected.” She said she was told that also long as she did not use a slur in class, she would be fine.?

“I was the lone conservative speaking up, as it was a very liberal class including the professor, but that was fine with me,” Keith said. “I’m used to being in the minority on a college campus.”?

However, the topic of gender came up in the course, and Keith made her views on the issue known. After that, the professor sent her an email and said she “wasn’t recognizing the humanity of the other students in class.” She added the professor alleged Keith broke the UK Code of Student Conduct, which supports university values such as “integrity, respect, responsibility and accountability, and sense of community.”?

UK is a predominantly white institution. According to Spring 2023 statistics, more than 73% of enrolled students were white.

Later when asked by a committee member to clarify how she brought up the issues with the university, Keith said she dropped the course for unrelated reasons, but had emailed the professor back after speaking with another one. She also did not appeal the RA hiring decision.?

When asked for comment, UK spokesperson Jay Blanton told the Kentucky Lantern he cannot speak to the incidents Keith testified about in the committee.?

“But all our students should feel free — and should be encouraged — to voice their opinions and points of view — always — without fear of reprisal,” Blanton added. “Indeed, stating points of view and perspective should always be welcome. That is our expectation and those are our values.”

Wilson’s other guest, Ben Foster, an accountancy professor at UofL and president of the Kentucky Association of Scholars, said at the university he has heard of someone arguing a candidate was “too conservative” to be the chair of the business department and, as part of a different search for another college’s dean, candidates were asked to complete a diversity statement which was made public. Foster said moderate conservatives and libertarians “feel very unwelcome on campus.”??

“The first time I ever heard the term white privilege was at the University of Louisville where they had a ‘white privilege forum,’” Foster said. “And when I sat in there, one thing that entered my mind was I didn’t feel that privilege when I was a kid and had to go use the outhouse in the winter.”?

UofL spokesperson John Karman said the university has “no university policy that requires a commitment to DEI by faculty, staff or students.”

Aaron Thompson, the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, took several questions from the committee after Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, asked him to speak. Thompson said he has had multiple conversations about the bill with Wilson ahead of the committee meeting.?

“Universities and colleges are an integrated society with a lot of different thoughts. … But one of the pieces I would pose to you — that in many cases when we try to force people in thinking one way, it’s because other people are seeing them that way,” Thompson said.?

Kiara Gray, education policy and advocacy strategist for the Louisville Urban League, said the organization opposes the bill because it is “disguised to appear to protect individual freedoms, but when examined against reality, its intentional and unintentional damaging consequences become apparent.”?

“This bill does nothing to improve academic standards, increase critical thinking or expand the diversity of thought on college campuses,” Gray said. “Instead, it opens the door to the unregulated flow of narrow-minded ideologies that seek to marginalize, rather than to include in silence, rather than discuss.”

KET will debut "Becoming bell hooks" on Feb. 27 and 29. (KET)

KET will celebrate the February premiere of its documentary “Becoming bell hooks” with preview screenings in Louisville and Lexington.

A KET release says the documentary “explores?the life and legacy of Kentucky-born author bell hooks, who wrote nearly 40 books and whose work at the intersection of race, class and gender serves as a lasting contribution to the feminist movement.

“The one-hour film examines bell’s childhood in Hopkinsville, her return to Kentucky in the early 2000s to join the faculty at Berea College, and how her connection to Kentucky’s ‘hillbilly culture’ informed her belief that feminism is for everybody,” says the release.

The film features selections from hook’s work read by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and includes interviews with friends and family, including feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Kentucky writers Crystal Wilkinson and Silas House, her younger sister Gwenda Motley and many others.

Steinem said bell was “one of the most universal writers and universal people” who made the feminist movement more accessible to all by going beyond issues of gender, race, class and geography. “It’s hard to imagine anyone who wouldn’t be enchanted, educated and made happier by her books.”

“Becoming bell hooks“?is a KET production, produced by Elon Justice and Sarah Moyer. It is funded in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

The documentary will air on KET at 9/8 p.m. Feb. 27 and Feb. 29.

Free preview screenings will be held at:

6:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Center ?in Lexington.

7 p.m. Feb . 22 at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

To RSVP for a screening or find more information, visit KET.org/bellhooks.

This story has been updated. An earlier version contained errors in the dates of the preview screenings.

Citing the need for “menstrual justice,” Kentucky Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, filed legislation to remove the 6% sales tax from period products such as pads and tampons. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky is one of 21 states that taxes period products, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies, but several Republican and Democrat lawmakers want to change that.?

Period product tax is sometimes called the “pink tax” and advocates for removing it say the products shouldn’t cost more because they aren’t optional expenses.?

Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, said Thursday she plans to file legislation to remove sales tax from menstrual products. A similar bill filed Tuesday by Republican Rep. Kim Banta of Ft. Mitchell also proposes removing sales and use tax from period products.?

Willner’s goes a step further by also requiring public schools serving grades 6 through 12 to provide at least one kind of free period product to their students in at least half their bathrooms.?

If it passed, it would go into effect in August. Wilner proposed similar legislation last session, alongside Republican co-sponsors, but that bill did not advance.?

During a press conference discussing her bill Thursday, Willner said that she’s had “productive conversations with colleagues across the aisle” about the issue, including Appropriations and Revenue Committee members. Willner’s bill includes a $2 million annual appropriation.???

“The question that I always get is: ‘You’re a Democrat, you’re in the minority in a very large supermajority. Is this bill going to? pass?’ I don’t know the answer to that,” she said.??

Her conversations with colleagues have been met, she said, with some “receptivity” as well as some “embarrassment.”?

“Student health, attendance and overall concentration increases for students by simply providing free period products in public schools,” said Tamarri Wielder, the Kentucky state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. “Soap and toilet paper are already expected. It’s time for students who menstruate to have the same access to these basic and necessary supplies.”??

The Alliance for Period Supplies reported a quarter of students have had to miss a class because they lacked access to period products.?

Laurie Grimes, a pediatric psychologist representing the Kentucky Psychological Association, said period product equity is a mental health issue as well as a gender and economic one.??

“When access to these essential, necessary, not optional products is uncertain, the burden of managing normal bodily functions can be distressing and anxiety producing,” said Grimes. “Students unable to access products may miss school, miss work, miss extracurricular responsibilities and commitments.”?

“These stresses can affect mood, motivation, self concept, body image, and overall well being,” Grimes said.?

Willner was also joined by representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and Period Y’all, who spoke in support of the bill.?

Tristan Perry, a social work student at Kentucky State University, also spoke in support of the bill and encouraged more men to speak up on the issue.?

“Any social worker would tell you that our main goal is to ensure that everyone’s basic needs are being met, regardless of gender, economic status, or income level,” Perry said. “This legislation would help them compete that way.”?

Perry added: “If we hope to move forward, everyone, including myself and other men must be willing to have these conversations and normalize talking about the reproductive role of women, instead of treating it as something to be ashamed of. It is not my role to speak for women. But I hope that more men will be willing to speak with women on such issues.”??

A related bill, filed in the House by Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton, D-Shively, would require homeless shelters to provide period and other personal products like condoms and UTI medications for free.

Students gathered at the Capitol to protest SB 150, which removed access to gender-affirming medical care for trans minors. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Ysa Leon is questioning their future in the commonwealth. The outcome of Kentucky’s gubernatorial race this November will be a deciding factor.?

“I’ve told my family: Be prepared in November because that might change where I’m staying after I graduate in May,” said Leon, a 20-year-old nonbinary student at Transylvania University, where they are?president of the ?Student Government Association.

Leon and other transgender Kentuckians have been concerned for much of the year as Kentucky politics filled with heated discourse on the rights of trans people, specifically over what gender-affirming medical care for youth should be permitted in the state.?

After the Kentucky General Assembly passed one of the strongest anti-trans bills in the country, Senate Bill 150, Ray Loux, 17, decided to enroll in Fayette County Public Schools’ Middle College program for his senior year. He did not want to worry about which bathroom he should use, what pronouns his teachers will use and “not being able to talk about who I am with my friends in school.”

Ray is considering going to a college out of state.?

“I had a panic attack the other day because I wasn’t sure what my health care situation would look like going forward,” Ray said, as he must taper off his hormones while he is underage.?

Now, the issue of trans rights has reached the governor’s race.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is seeking a second term in office, has released a 15-second ad called ‘Parents.” It focuses on claims made by Republicans, including his opponent Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, that the governor supports “sex change surgery and drugs” for kids.

Wearing basic dad attire — a blue button down under a red quarter zip pullover — Beshear stares into the camera and says: “My faith guides me as a governor and as a dad.”?

He then repeats a familiar line — “all children are children of God” — before saying Cameron’s attacks are not true, adding: “I’ve never supported gender reassignment surgery for kids – and those procedures don’t happen here in Kentucky.”?

GOP backlash was swift, and rhetoric uplifting culture wars reached the annual Fancy Farm Picnic in West Kentucky earlier this month. Among his jokes for the day, Cameron riffed that come November Beshear’s pronouns will be “‘has’ and ‘been,’” and criticized the governor for protecting “transgender surgeries for kids.”

In a press conference last week, Cameron highlighted a letter from a University of Kentucky health clinic, stating it has performed “a small number of non-genital gender reassignment surgeries on minors who are almost adult,” but stopped after Kentucky’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for youth went into effect.?

Hours later, Beshear said in his press conference the letter was new to him, and added that had a bill that only banned gender reassignment surgeries for minors made its way to his desk, he would have signed it.?

“At the end of the day, how has this race gone here? Daniel Cameron’s taken this race to the gutter in a way that I’ve never seen,” Beshear said. “I mean, right now, I think if you ask him about climate change, he’ll say it’s caused by children and gender reassignment surgeries.”?

As politicians put a spotlight on gender-affirming medical care, advocates say the lives of trans Kentuckians — especially those of the commonwealth’s trans youth — are on the line.??

‘It’s hard to be a trans child anywhere’

Transgender youth are already vulnerable, and the way that politicians talk about trans people in general is “really dehumanizing,” said Oliver Hall, the director of Trans Health at Kentucky Health Justice Network. They work directly with transgender youth, a demographic that Hall said is being used as a “political football.”?

“It’s hard to be a kid. It’s hard to be a teenager in general,” Hall said. “And then it’s additionally hard to be a trans teenager. It’s hard to be a trans child anywhere.”

Leon, who came out as queer in 2020 and then as trans and nonbinary in 2021, said it took a lot of therapy to find themselves. At first, only their roommates and close friends referred to them with they/them pronouns in private.?

“When I heard it the first time, I felt like I took the biggest breath ever — this exhale that I’d been holding in for so long. All of this pent up anxiety was gone and I felt so good,” Leon said. “And it’s not that that fixed everything for me, but accepting yourself and having other people accept you changed my life. It changes everything for some people.”?

Kentucky’s trans youth no longer have access to gender-affirming medical care because of Senate Bill 150, which went into effect in July.?

The law, which Cameron’s office is defending against a legal challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, bans gender-affirming medical care for anyone under 18, including forcing those already taking puberty blockers to stop. It also allows teachers to misgender trans kids, regulates which school bathrooms kids can use and limits the sex education students can receive.

Beshear vetoed the legislation, but the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly easily overrode it. In his rejection of the bill, Beshear wrote that he was doing so based on the rights of parents to make decisions about how their child is treated and that the law would allow government interference in medical care.?

“Improving access to gender-affirming care is an important means of improving health outcomes for the transgender population,” the governor wrote in his veto message.?

What someone’s gender-affirming care looks like is different for each transgender person, Leon said. They did not use puberty blockers because they came out as an adult, but socially transitioned with support from their friends and family. Gender-affirming medical care is also not always covered by health insurance companies.?

Having such laws on Kentucky’s books mixed with support from politicians running for the highest state office in the Commonwealth has “a detrimental effect on the physical and mental health of trans people,” Hall said.

Some in the trans community fear that, eventually, gender-affirming care for adults could be banned as well, said Ray’s mother, Shavahn Loux. While her son is in a “better situation than a lot of kids” because he will be an adult in a few months and could regain access to health care, she said “it’s scary” to think Ray’s access to hormone treatment in general could end completely.?

“I know a number of people who were thinking about coming here and are now no longer considering it because of this,” she said. “That’s true for trans individuals and non-trans individuals.”?

When asked recently if he thought gender-affirming medical care for adults should be banned in Kentucky, Cameron told reporters that he supported “what our legislature did in protecting our children.”?

“Adults can make different decisions but this is about protecting kids and making sure that we don’t rob them of youth and innocence,” Cameron said.?

‘The right buzzwords’

After a federal judge reversed a temporary block on the health care part of the new state law Cameron issued a statement calling the treatments “experimental” and vowed that his office would continue to “stand up for the right of children to be children, free from the influences of leftist activists and radical gender ideology.”

Rebecca Blankenship, the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky and the first openly transgender person ever elected to public office in the state, noted that Cameron’s defense was initially “rebuked” by the judge in the injunction, who noted that the drugs “have a? long history of safe use in minors for various conditions.”

This shows, she said, that “Attorney General Cameron is willing not only to lie to voters, but even to the courts to advance these political talking points.”

Alexander Griggs, the community outreach coordinator for the Fairness Campaign, said such messaging argues “trans people shouldn’t have autonomy over the decisions they make over their bodies” and that their medical needs are “wrong.” With that constant messaging, transgender youth may internalize it, Griggs continued.

“The more of that language that’s used, the more damage is being done,” he said.?

Leon agreed, saying that “people think they can say whatever they want, and not realize the harm that it does.”?

As a teenager, Leon said they tried their best to fit in with their cisgender peers. They turned to their church, but were presented with the option of conversion therapy, a practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual or gender identities. It has been rejected by leading medical and mental health organizations. They did not undergo the practice.?

“My mental health and my self-love improved more than I could have ever imagined after I came out as nonbinary,” Leon said.?

Beshear has taken a more moderate stance on gender-affirming medical care. Bobbie Glass, a transgender woman who testified before lawmakers against Senate Bill 150, said Beshear’s recent ad used “very specific” language to discuss his position, pointing out that he did not discuss his position on puberty blockers.?

Beshear is using “the right buzzwords” that people in the transgender community will understand, she said, adding that people who don’t understand the terms could interpret the ad to mean “he believes the same thing” they do.?

“But then, Daniel Cameron’s going to turn around and try to exploit that stuff with the language he used in his veto,” Glass said. “And so it’s still going to have the effect of just making life miserable.”??

Blankenship appreciates Beshear’s ad for “advancing the conversation, in that he’s lowering the temperature of it, and focusing on the truth.” Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky does not endorse or oppose political candidates.?

“He has been unwilling to bow to pressure from radicals to hurt us,” Blankenship said of the governor. “But at the same time, it’s difficult to point to anything that he’s done since maybe 2020, that was clearly designed to help LGBT people.”?

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have asked the governor’s administration to direct the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to track suicides within the community or where conversion therapy is happening in the state, Blankenship added.?

If Beshear is reelected, Hall hopes Beshear “will acknowledge the support that trans Kentuckians have given him” and enact executive orders to ensure policies like anti-discrimination protections for transgender people statewide.

Leon said they saw Beshear’s recent ad as “appropriate.” Ray called Beshear’s first term “empowering” for trans Kentuckians.?

“It was really nice to be able to see somebody in a position of power in Kentucky who was accepting of people like me and welcoming of us and embracing us to live in this state,” Ray said.?

A February Mason-Dixon poll released by the Fairness Campaign showed 71% of Kentucky registered voters don’t want lawmakers making the decisions about trans youth’s healthcare. But how harmful rhetoric is spread could impact public opinion, Blankenship said.?

“What the consequences will be will depend upon … the radicals’ ability to spread their message far and wide and will depend on the LGBT community’s ability and willingness to stand up for ourselves and tell the truth,” she said.?

Hall also highlighted increased rhetoric that has grown “even over the past couple of years.” According to the Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People, 27% of transgender and nonbinary young people reported being physically threatened or harmed in the past year because of their gender identity.

“It’s radicalizing people, and people are treating trans people even worse than we have been treated historically,” Hall said.?

The politics, Griggs noted, feels like a tactic to distract the public from other issues. Transgender people having autonomy over their lives shouldn’t be a partisan issue, he said.

“If we let them get away with any of it, like we give them an inch, they’re going to take a mile,” Griggs said. “Before we know it, no one will have rights.”?

Ray has embraced being openly trans because of the political spotlight on the community. He said he has “the privilege to be out and be safe at home in my life,” so that’s why he’s spoken openly with media outlets and friends.?

Ray’s friends who are trans in Kentucky’s more rural areas have “experienced a lot worse than I have since the passing of this bill,” he said. Because of that, they are not visible.?

“Ray’s quiet and unassuming and a good kid, but you never know who’s just going to have it in their mind that that’s wrong and that people like that shouldn’t exist,” his mother said.?

She’s seen some of Ray’s friends who are trans and were open about it have since “shrunk back and are not as willing to put themselves out there because they’re worried about what might happen.”?

“You’re not going to eliminate trans kids,” Shavahn said. “You’re just going to make them a lot more scared to be themselves and to let people know that they’re trans.”

Both Leon and Ray say the outcome of the November election will impact their future in Kentucky. Ray is prepared to leave the state for college if he has to.

“If Beshear loses, I think Kentucky is going to become a lot less welcoming of a place,” he said.?

Leon hasn’t decided.

“I’m kind of weighing: Do I stay here and fight for people like me and make it a better state for people like me or do I protect myself and go somewhere where I am safe?”

Correction: We have updated this story to reflect that Ysa Leon did not go through conversion therapy.

Myriam Reynolds of Texas, the mother of a transgender son, said before he received care, he was unhappy and she has “no doubt that the health care my son accessed was life-saving.” (Screenshot from committee webcast)

People who experience intimate partner violence or the threat of it are much more likely to end up with diabetes, according to a new study published by a University of Kentucky researcher and others. AaronAmat, iStock / Getty Images Plus.

People who experience intimate partner violence or the threat of it are much more likely to end up with diabetes, according to a new study published by a University of Kentucky researcher and others.?

Experiencing violence, abuse and neglect as adults and children increased the risk of adult-onset diabetes in women and men by 23% to 35%, the study showed.?

The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.?

Researchers attributed the heightened risk to the elevated cortisol levels and suppressed insulin levels that occur in the human body in response to violence or chronic stress.?

UK researcher Ann Coker, who’s also a professor of epidemiology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the university’s College of Medicine, said the study is the first of its kind.?

“Before this research, we knew that partner violence was associated with diabetes among women, but we did not know that violence preceded diabetes development,” Coker said. “We had no data on this relationship for men or within racial groups.”?

Kentucky already has high rates of domestic violence?

A recent statewide report on domestic violence showed nearly half of women and more than a third of men in Kentucky experience intimate partner violence or the threat of it.?

In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed 11.4% of Kentuckians had diabetes, a decrease from the two years prior.?

Diabetes is a chronic condition that hinders the body’s ability to make enough insulin to properly break down foods, per the CDC. There are several different types of diabetes.?

More than 37 million Americans have diabetes, the CDC says, and many don’t know it.?

Additionally, Kentuckians experience high rates of child abuse and adverse childhood experiences.

Researchers collected data for the study before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic may have made the risk of diabetes worse by increasing stress, another researcher in the study said.?

“Our findings also show an increased risk in a timeframe before the additional social stress of the COVID pandemic,” said Dr. Maureen Sanderson, the study’s lead author and a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College, said in a statement.

“This strongly suggests the need for helping professionals across disciplines to implement effective violence prevention and intervention strategies to reduce the short and long-term social and health consequences of partner violence and child abuse,” Sanderson added.?

Interventions, Sanderson said, can include “strengthening economic supports for families, promoting social norms to protect against adversity and violence, ensuring strong starts for children, teaching skills, connecting youth to caring adults and intervening to lessen harm.”

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams

Reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.?

Kentucky domestic violence survivors just got a little extra help from the state in staying safe from abusers.?

Republican-sponsored Senate Bill 79 passed the General Assembly during the 2023 legislative session and Gov. Andy Beshear signed it into law. ?

Called the “Safe at Home Program,” the law went into effect Thursday.?

It lets victims of domestic violence hide their addresses when registering to vote without a protective order from a judge. It also allows the State Capitol to be the address on public records and lets those moving from out of state easily join the program.?

The Secretary of State’s office and county clerks will know the person’s real address and can send them absentee ballots.?

“Kentucky has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the nation. Even worse, government facilitates this through unnecessary publication of individuals’ home addresses,” Secretary of State Michael Adams said. He appeared alongside Gov. Andy Beshear Thursday to speak about the law, wearing a purple tie. (Purple is widely worn to raise awareness about domestic violence).?

“When a victim of abuse decides to leave and find a safe place, often her abuser is able to find her sometimes by learning her new location through easily-accessible public records,” Adams said.??

But: This law will work to fix that, he said.?

Kentucky ranks high for domestic violence?

In 2023 Kentucky had the second worst rate of domestic violence in the United States, according to World Population Review data. The commonwealth is also 11th in the country for femicides – killings of females because of their gender, WPR said.?

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, but that anyone can be harmed in a domestic setting. One in four women and one in nine men experience “severe intimate partner physical violence,” NCADV said.?

Beshear said the high rates of domestic violence in the state are “unacceptable.”?

“We all ought to be committed to taking action, to making change, to every single Kentuckians’ safety,” he said.?

A person is eligible for Safe at Home, according to Adams’ office, if they:

• Are a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, stalking or other crimes that make them fear for their safety.?
• Can provide a statement, with penalty of perjury, attesting to their need for the program.?
• Are a permanent or temporary resident of Kentucky.
• Reciprocity will be granted to individuals who are enrolled in address confidentiality programs in their home state.
• Co-applicants can be listed on the application if they live with the enrolling survivor and their enrollment will contribute to the survivor’s safety.

To enroll in the Safe at Home Program, visit the Secretary of State’s website here. Applications should be sent to [email protected] or by mail at: Safe at Home Program,? c/o Office of the Secretary of State,? 700 Capital Ave Suite 152, Frankfort, KY 40601.

A protester raises a fist beside a large transgender pride flag at the Kentucky State Capitol in March. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

A federal judge sided with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky Wednesday, temporarily blocking a section of a recently-passed state law that seeks to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors.?

In his ruling, Judge David J. Hale said, “Based on the evidence submitted, the Court finds that the treatments barred by SB 150 are medically appropriate and necessary for some transgender children under the evidence-based standard of care accepted by all major medical organizations in the United States.”

“These drugs have a long history of safe use in minors for various conditions,” Hale continued. “It is undisputed that puberty-blockers and hormones are not given to prepubertal children with gender dysphoria.”

Hale was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014. In Tennessee, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump?ruled likewise?in a similar case on the same day Hale ruled. Earlier, there were such rulings from an Obama-appointed judge in Arkansas?and one in?Florida?named by Bill Clinton. Judge Eli Richardson of Tennessee wrote, “To the court’s knowledge, every court to consider preliminarily enjoining a ban on gender-affirming care for minors has found that such a ban is likely unconstitutional.”

The ACLU filed to block Senate Bill 150 in early May. Later that month, the ACLU asked for a preliminary injunction to block part of the bill while the larger legal challenge plays out. The new law was to take effect Thursday.

The ACLU specifically took issue with the portion of the bill that prohibits health care providers from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones, performing surgeries like phalloplasty and vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on minors.?

Transgender advocates have said such surgeries on minors already were not happening in Kentucky.?

Kentucky’s first openly trans elected official, Rebecca Blankenship, said on a recent KET appearance that “every LGBT organization in the commonwealth said that we were absolutely fine with banning those sorts of surgeries for minors.”?

“We might as well ban unicorn attacks, it makes no difference,” she said.?

‘Misguided’ ruling versus ‘breath of air’

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron called the ruling “misguided.” Cameron, who is running for governor, said in a statement that SB 150 is a “commonsense law that protects Kentucky children.”?

“There is nothing ‘affirming’ about this dangerous approach to mental health,” Cameron said. “My office will continue to do everything in our power to defend this law passed by our elected representatives.”

Cameron’s opponent, incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, vetoed SB 150, but the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly easily overrode it.

Blankenship, the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a joint statement with Michael Frazier, a lobbyist and government affairs director with Ban, that “puberty blockers and hormone therapy save lives.”???

“A bill that would have wreaked havoc tomorrow was thwarted by the U.S. Constitution today,” Blankenship and Frazier said. ?

They reiterated the point that “sex reassignment surgeries for minors are perfectly appropriate and uncontested by every pro-LGBT organization in the commonwealth.”?

Meanwhile, the Wednesday news, they said, “will be a breath of air for trans youth.”?

In a statement, National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter called the decision a “a huge relief for the families targeted by this unnecessary and harmful law.

The law, Minter said, “prevents doctors from doing their jobs and parents from making medical decisions for their own children.”

A controversial bill

During the 2023 legislative session, many rallied against the bill, which was part of a larger wave of anti-LGBTQ bills across the United States.

Protestors first asked legislators not to advance the bill. (It was originally House Bill 470 but in a last-minute move, was absorbed into the larger SB 150). Then, once it passed and Beshear vetoed it, they again asked lawmakers – unsuccessfully – to let the veto stand.?Legislators easily overrode Beshear.?

That last day, protesters shouted from the Senate gallery as the bill advanced in final passage. Some were removed from the gallery, and Kentucky State Police said 19 people were arrested.

This story has been updated with information about similar rulings in federal courts in other states.

The national plan defines gender-based violence as any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, sex characteristics or sexual orientation. (Getty Images)

For the first time in history, the White House has launched a national plan to address gender-based violence on a federal level, introducing seven strategic action plans to help communities across the United States.

“As long as there are women in this country and around the world who live in fear of violence, there’s more we have to do to fulfill this sacred commitment,” President Joe Biden said in the U.S. National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. “No one — no one, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, should experience abuse. Period. And if they do, they should have the services and support they need to get through it.”

Gender-based violence is a public safety and public health crisis, according to the White House, and it is affecting urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities across the U.S.

The national plan defines gender-based violence as any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, sex characteristics or sexual orientation.

Gender-based violence impacts all populations, but the experiences of persons of color are disproportionately affected. The national plan reported that Black women and Indigenous women are killed by a current or former partner at a rate 2.5 times that of white women.

An estimated 56% of Indigenous women have reported experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime, more than 55% have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner and 49% have experienced stalking, according to the White House’s plan.

“Gender-based violence violates fundamental human rights, destroys communities, and fosters social inequities,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a press release. “Identifying and preventing these crimes is a top department priority, underscored by this first-ever national plan and the government’s collective commitment to this cause.”

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reported that more than half of women (54.3%) and nearly one-third (31%) of men in the United States had reported some form of sexual violence victimization in their lifetimes.

The rate of intimate partner violence of women was seven times the rate of men, according to National Crime Victimization Survey, and the rate of rape or sexual assault of women was also seven times the rate of men.

The White House launched the national plan on May 25, resulting from the Biden administration’s Gender Policy Council, which was established in 2021.

“Sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and human trafficking are serious violent crimes that make our nation less equal and less just,” Acting Director Allison Randall of the Office on Violence Against Women said in a press release.

“Only a comprehensive response that is deeply informed by survivors and historically marginalized communities can end gender-based violence,” Randall added.

The seven strategic pillars part of the national plan include: prevention; support, healing, safety, and well-being; economic security and housing stability; online safety; legal and justice systems; emergency preparedness and crisis response; and research and data.

The White House said that these strategies are building upon existing federal initiatives, and the national plan will provide an essential framework for strengthening ongoing federal action and interagency collaboration.

Each strategic pillar identifies different goals and objectives to help address gender-based violence. For instance, the prevention pillar outlines three goals which include: Enhancing and promoting gender-based violence prevention; enhancing dissemination and implementation of gender-based violence prevention strategies; and improving prevention efforts to change social norms that support or condone gender-based violence and to promote healthy and respectful relationships across the life course.

The national plan serves as a framework for federal agencies and other stakeholders working to end gender-based violence. It is intended to inform and guide federal and nonfederal entities’ research, policy development, program planning, service delivery, and other efforts.

Ray Loux with his cat, Oswald (Ozzy). (Photo provided)

This story discusses suicide and anti-LGBTQ attacks. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.?

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, also has trained counselors available around the clock. Reach them at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/, or by texting START to 678678.?

FRANKFORT — Until last week, Ray Loux could easily picture his future in Kentucky: studying neuroscience in state, being a researcher. Aging in the body that feels right for him surrounded by family, friends. Living, not just surviving.

But the Kentucky legislature took that certainty from the Lexington teen when both the Senate and the House passed a sweeping anti-transgender bill last week.?

If legislation like Senate Bill 150 had been law four years ago, when Loux came out as transgender, “I don’t know if I’d be here,” he said.?

Back then, he avoided drinking water until he got home from school so he wouldn’t need to use a public bathroom. He worried someone might assault or attack him while he did so. He suffered urinary tract infections and severe dehydration as a result.?

Four years into his transition, he still worries.?

“I am still scared to this day of using the restroom,” he said. “If I walk up to a bathroom and I hear people talking inside of it, I will go to a different bathroom.”?

Yet, anti-LGBTQ Senate Bill 150 — which also bans gender-affirming care for minors — directs local school boards to make policies keeping people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that “are reserved for students of a different biological sex.”

In other words, a trans boy like Loux, 16, would have to use the girls’ restroom at school.?

Trans kids may have use of single-stall bathrooms or “controlled use” of staff facilities, the bill says. But they won’t have access to student bathrooms that don’t conform to their sex at birth when other students are using those facilities.?

Loux doesn’t think legislators have considered the real fallout of that. He’s 6-foot-1. He’s “lucky enough to pass pretty well” as a cisgender boy, he said. Most people don’t realize he’s transgender until he tells them.?

“They don’t want me in girls’ bathrooms,” he said. “They (want) to keep boys out of girls’ bathrooms. And I’m like: ‘yeah, I don’t want that. I don’t want to use the girls’ bathroom.’”?

The legislation also has him questioning where to attend college. Loux, who grew up in Texas, always pictured himself at the University of Kentucky, but now he’s not so sure.?

He may have to look at colleges in other states, he said, “because I don’t know how safe Kentucky is going to be.”

That breaks his heart.?

“This is my home. I’ve connected more here than I have any other place I’ve lived,” he said, his voice cracking. “I feel like I finally belonged. And it really, really hurts that Kentucky doesn’t want me here.”?

Why all the anti-LGBTQ legislation? Why now??

This session, Kentucky legislators introduced 11 anti-LGBTQ bills, according to an American Civil Liberties Union?tracking site.?

Nationwide, the ACLU is tracking more than 400 anti-LGBTQ bills. They threaten, among other rights, the freedoms of speech and expression, health care and civil rights, according to the ACLU.?

Most states in the country have introduced at least one bill that targets the community, with multiple bills that specifically deal with gender-affirming care for minors.?

Tennessee has a new law on the books that bans gender-affirming care for minors, as does South Dakota. And in Iowa, lawmakers want transgender students banned from using the bathrooms that don’t align with their sex at birth.?

The ACLU has said Kentucky’s Senate Bill 150 is the worst anti-trans bill in the country.?

Jackie McGranahan, a policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky, attributes this wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation to the fallout over abortion bans.?

Last summer, the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. A Kentucky trigger law banned abortion immediately upon the ruling.?

In November, voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have stated there was no inherent right to abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.?

In February, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled against an ACLU request to uphold an injunction that had briefly reinstated access to abortion in Kentucky, meaning the commonwealth’s six-week abortion ban remains intact as the case is litigated.?

Several abortion bills were introduced this session — one would have allowed for rape and incest exceptions while another proposed lifting restrictions all together — but none advanced.?

“The abortion conversation is off the table,” McGranahan said. The thinking among conservative legislators, she believes, is: “Let’s just move on down the line for additional social justice issues that will get us points nationally and get us attention.”

Republican and former legislator Bob Heleringer of Louisville echoed that. Kentucky, he said, is “copycatting other states.”?

“I think there’s a feeling among some of these people that ‘we need to get on board with what they’re doing,’” said Heleringer, a lobbyist for the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.?

Still, as a conservative, Heleringer said he thinks SB150 is a “travesty” and that it “disgraces the 23 years I put in” as a lawmaker in Frankfort.?

“When I was in office, we were the pro-family party. We were pro-life,” he told the Lantern. “All human life is sacred. I mean, if you don’t believe that, you’re not a Republican. And it’s paramount for us. And this is saying that ‘some lives are sacred . . . others? It’s open season.’ And it’s just wrong.”?

Still, it’s not strictly a partisan issue.?

A retired Republican lawmaker testified in committee against anti-trans legislation, motivated by his transgender grandchild. Another Republican lobbied against what he called codified discrimination. A Republican senator voted against Senate Bill 150. A Democratic senator voted for it.?

In a Senate floor speech explaining his “yes” vote, Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, called it hypocritical for anyone who supports abortion access to condemn the anti-trans bill.?

Heleringer thinks Meredith was right to compare the two. You cannot be truly pro-life while attacking trans and LGBTQ kids, he said, calling both the unborn and trans children “totally innocent, totally defenseless.”?

Anyone who doesn’t stick up for both is “not a consistent pro-lifer,” he said. “Both sides need to be consistent.”?

Chris Hartman, the executive director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, said there were more anti-LGBTQ bills this session than the past 14 combined. He called the anti-LGBTQ bills a “slate of hate.”?

“We didn’t pass any anti-LGBTQ bills in Kentucky for, pretty much, the past decade, with the exception of that trans sports bill last year,” he said.?

But now, the “field map for gaining cheap political points is to demonize a group of people that most folks don’t have familiarity with, and they landed on trans folks.”?

Kentucky has around 2,000 transgender youth ages 13-17, according to 2022 figures from the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law (UCLA). There are 5,300 ages 18-24; 9,900 ages 25-64; and 2,400 who are 65 or older, UCLA found.?

In the Southern region of the United States, of which Kentucky is part, there are 102,200 transgender youth and 523,600? transgender adults, according to UCLA data.?

“All things we do have consequences.”?

People in favor of anti-trans legislation expressed concern over minors’ inability to understand and consent to gender-affirming care.?

House and Senate committees that passed anti-trans legislation heard from a person who de-transitioned after a bad experience.?

Luka Hein, who has recently testified in other states in support of anti-transgender legislation, testified about receiving a double mastectomy — the removal of breasts — and going on testosterone at 16.

“As a result of this so-called gender affirming care, if it could even be called care, at only 21 I feel as if my body is falling apart,” Hein said. “I now deal with constant joint pain, ribbon spine damage, heart issues. My vocal cords will ache. I watched as my muscle mass wasted away. I don’t know if I will ever be able to carry a child.”?

Regrets like Hein’s are rare, research suggests. A 2022 report from the International Journal of Transgender Health said regret surrounding gender affirming care is extremely low. Regret over top surgery could range from 0% to 4%, while it ranged from 0% to 8% for vaginoplasty.?The National Library of Medicine reported in 2017 that one in seven people regretted non-trans-related surgeries — more than 14%.?

Dr. Craig Anthony Losekamp, a Bowling Green physician, echoed this while testifying against anti-LGBTQ legislation in committee. Regret, he said, can happen over any medical procedure.?

“I have had … a patient who had a knee surgery that went so wrong that it eventually not only ended up in their suicide, but it ended up in their spouse’s suicide,” he said. “All things we do have consequences.”?

Loux said pressure wasn’t a factor in his own coming out and transition.

“Nobody pushed me into it,” he said. “I didn’t know a single trans person until after I came out.”?

He spoke with a therapist for a year before even starting hormones, which then boosted his confidence and his grades. He had a supportive mother. “It wasn’t a decision made lightly.”?

“I have never made a better decision in my life,” he said. “I have never been happier.”?

Before coming out, he would break down just thinking about the future. Now, he feels emotionally stable.?

“This is the right body for me,” he said. “This was the right choice. And I can actually see a future for myself now. I can see myself being happy.”?

And, he said, he’s grateful for the community and the legislators who fought for him this session.

“Our kids are not freaks.”?

Jeri Stine Hahn is one of many who came to the Kentucky Capitol this session to publicly defend transgender children.?

She never got involved with the legislative session before this year. She never felt the need — she’s been an ally of the trans community, not an activist.?

But when one of the worst anti-trans bills in the United States popped up in Kentucky, she headed to the Capitol to defend her trans daughter’s life and humanity.?

In early March she sat in a committee room listening to doctors, therapists, activists and trans Kentuckians begged legislators — the first of two times — not to ban gender affirming care.?

They were not successful, and the legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors passed both the committee and the House. It later cleared a Senate committee as well, though the Senate voted narrowly to postpone consideration of it.?

Despite that, an 11th-hour switch, which folded House Bill?470 language into another bill, resulted in both chambers passing a ban on gender affirming care for minors, among other things.?

Hahn left that first House committee meeting, holding a sign that said “We love our transgender child.”?

In the hall with a crowd of people who gathered to protest the bill, she chanted. Speaking out, she said then, felt cathartic.?

In addition to protesting in person, Hahn also runs a support group on Facebook called Trans Parent Lex for parents and allies of transgender children.?

“I can see where people are scared,” she said. But she thinks a lot of the fear around transitioning is based in ignorance and, in some cases, an unwillingness to learn.?

“Our kids matter, and our kids are not freaks,” she said. “Our kids are lovely, and we love them.”?

“I’m really, really scared.”?

Before last week, Ray Loux had only ever been to the statehouse for Kentucky Youth Assembly.?

Sitting in the gallery and listening to legislators debate what rights transgender minors should have, he wished he could go back to a time before he felt “hated by every person in that room.”?

He never really considered himself an activist, either, until last week. He’d much rather be hanging out with his slew of animal friends — cats Ginger and Ozzy, axolotl Kevin and Bubbles, dogs Luna and Nova. The chickens, the rats, the peacocks.

“I’m so uncertain about the future and how this bill is going to affect me,” Loux said.

He worries about those who will suffer more than he will. And, he wonders if some will be “comfortable being bigots at school.”?

“I’m really, really scared of the pushback,” he said. He’s also concerned about how the bill could affect his relationships with his teachers.?

Loux believes kids all over Kentucky will suffer — and that some will die — as a direct result of SB150.?

To think otherwise, he said, is naive.?

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, speaks to reporters following the Senate Education Committee's vote to forward Senate Bill 150. (Photo by McKenna Horsley for the Kentucky Lantern.)

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

FRANKFORT — The Senate Education Committee voted 11-1 Thursday to advance a bill sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, Republican candidate for governor Kelly Craft’s running mate, over the objections of Sen. Karen Berg, whose transgender son recently died by suicide.?

Berg, D-Louisville, said she needed to be in the room because she wanted her colleagues to cast their votes in her presence. She said the bill, which Wise said protects the rights of parents, is about scoring points with voters in the upcoming Republican primary.

The Craft-Wise ticket “just needs to show that they are further right than the current Republican front runner,” Berg said. “That’s what this whole thing, this whole sh*t show, is. And they’re putting our children smack dab in the middle of it on purpose without a care in the world.”?

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, who cast the lone no vote, said: “This bill offers no safe space to a child. And this bill is designed doing one thing, and that is to promote an agenda. An agenda that is not helpful, or easy, or comforting to a child, but only to harm the child.”

Wise told the committee that Senate Bill 150 aims “to ensure parental communication, inspection and authorization, as it relates to three key things: health services that are offered and recommended by schools; two, school curriculum transparency on the subject of human sexuality; and, three, the protection of First Amendment freedoms of staff and students.”?

The bill takes aim at guidance from the Kentucky Department of Education to school districts on how to support LGBTQ+ students, including using students’ preferred names and pronouns. It would prohibit the Department of Education and state Board of Education from recommending or requiring policies to keep minor students’ information confidential from their parents, ?a Senate majority press release said.?

Several speakers, including LGBTQ+ rights advocates, mental health advocates and Kentuckians who are transgender, expressed concerns about the bill. No one from the public spoke in favor of the bill.?

Miles Joyner, a transgender man from Louisville, called the vote “heartbreaking” after the meeting but said he was proud to speak.?

“We have to keep showing up, keep making our voices heard. Refuse to cower to the glares that I actually got sitting there. We can’t cower to them. We have to stand up and speak the truth.”

Wise, R-Campbellsville,? said of Craft’s support for the legislation: “Kelly’s about empowering parents. She’s also about communication lines.” In recent days, she has criticized the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky State Board of Education for “pushing woke agendas in our schools.”

Berg’s son, Henry Berg-Bousseau, 24, died by suicide in December. He had recently been promoted at the Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide LGBTQ advocacy and lobbying organization.?

The senator said Thursday that he “killed himself, guys, because he didn’t want to face this again, all over the country, in every state house.”

Senate Bill 150 received a first reading when the Senate convened Thursday. Thomas and Berg also filed floor amendments to it. Berg said one of her amendments would allow a parent to request a school district use their child’s gender-conforming pronouns and that the school district abide by that request. The second would change a reference to ” student’s original, unedited birth certificate” to just “birth certificate.”

While in session, Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, spoke in support of Senate Bill 150 while highlighting her own bill, Senate Bill 102, which also focuses on parents’ rights and would establish a process for schools to receive complaints about rights violations and give parents access to education materials. Tichenor said the Department of Education and Commissioner Jason Glass have created policies that “keep information from parents regarding their children.”

As Tichenor spoke, Berg stood and listened at the end of Tichenor’s row, feet away. Earlier in the day, Tichenor voted to move Senate Bill 150 forward.

A study of youth in grades 7-12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Some risk factors are linked to being gay or bisexual in a hostile environment and the effects that this has on mental health.

A survey of youth by the Trevor Project last year found that nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.?Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of the organization in the report pointed to “the negative impacts of COVID-19 and relentless anti-transgender legislation.”??

In his weekly Team Kentucky update, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters that he had not read the bill or heard Wise’s floor speech Wednesday. The governor said he was concerned that the bill could increase bullying in schools against students who may already feel marginalized.

“I’m struck by the callousness of introducing this type of bill. Sen. Karen Berg just almost right next to you, buried her son — what a month ago?” the governor said. He added that it showed a lack of respect and empathy.