A crowd protesting anti-transgender legislation staged a "die in" on the Kentucky Capitol grounds on March 29, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

The U.S Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments on Dec. 4 in a challenge to state restrictions on gender-affirming medical care that has implications for Kentucky.

US Supreme Court review of gender-affirming care for youth could impact Kentucky law

The court agreed in June to take the appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams and their 15-year-old transgender child, two anonymous plaintiff families and Memphis physician Dr. Susan Lacy.

The Biden administration also asked the Supreme Court to review the law.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld bans enacted in Tennessee and Kentucky ending access to puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for transgender minors. The laws were enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures in 2023.

In June, ACLU-KY Legal Director Corey Shapiro said, “Our clients and their doctors simply want to provide the best medical care that is necessary for these amazing youth. We remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree and ultimately strike down these bans.”

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, 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.

Gov. Andy Beshear, surrounded by advocates for mental health and LGBTQ Kentuckians, signs an executive order Wednesday banning conversion therapy on young Kentuckians. (Governor's office)

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

Calling it a “dangerous practice,” Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Wednesday that bans conversion therapy on minors in Kentucky.?

Speaking in Frankfort, Beshear said such attempts to alter a young person’s gender expression or sexual attractions have “no basis in medicine”? — a view supported by experts in medicine and mental health.

Conversion therapy has been condemned by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), among other medical and psychological organizations. AACAP says conversion therapies “lack scientific credibility and clinical utility” and “there is evidence that such interventions are harmful.”??

The practice involves “interventions purported to alter same-sex attractions or an individual’s gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome” according to the AACAP.?

The American Psychological Association says that people who have undergone “sexual orientation change efforts” are much more likely to be depressed and suicidal. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Beshear’s executive order states that neither state or federal dollars can be used “for the practice of conversion therapy on minors.”?

“Today’s action does not force an ideology on anybody,” Beshear said. “It does not expose anyone to anything in a library or school. It simply stops a so-called ‘therapy’ that the medical community says is wrong and hurts our children.”

Beshear’s order comes after Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, has repeatedly sponsored legislation to ban conversion therapy in Kentucky. Each year, her bill has had bipartisan support. Given that, it’s always been a “mystery” to her why it didn’t pass, she told the Lantern Wednesday.?

“That’s a question I’ve asked myself for six years: Why can’t we get this across the finish line?” she said. “It’s such a discredited practice. It has caused such harm to so many young Kentuckians, including suicide. And it has had such strong bipartisan support.”??

“I’m incredibly grateful for the executive order, and that, at long last, there will be protections in place,” Willner added.?

Snags in 2025??

Beshear’s move could hit snags in the 2025 legislative session.?

Rep. Josh Calloway, R-Irvington, wrote on social media that he would file legislation next year to “stop this governor from pushing his harmful far-left agenda on struggling kids.”?

Calloway shared a screenshot of the email the governor’s office sent to announce the executive order and wrote, “why is @AndyBeshearKY determined to keep vulnerable children confused?”

“I will fight this with every fiber of my being,” Calloway wrote. “I am also exploring other legal options to stop egregious overreach.”??

Meanwhile, 12 Republican Senators slammed Beshear for the order, which they said “disregards the First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion and speech and violates the fundamental parental rights and responsibilities for their children.”?

“Time and again, the Kentucky Supreme Court has told the governor he lacks the power to create policy in the Commonwealth. Yet again, the governor is defying the Supreme Court, the General Assembly, and the doctrine of separation of powers,” those senators said in a statement. “The executive order uses such vague and overbroad language that health care providers are at risk, and children will be left without needed mental health care.”

The 12 Republican state senators issuing the statement condemning Beshear’s action are: ?Senate President Robert Stivers, Manchester; Robby Mills, Henderson;? Shelley Funke Frommeyer, Alexandria; Lindsey Tichenor, Smithfield; Whitney Westerfield, Fruit Hill; Gary Boswell, Owensboro; Donald Douglas, Nicholasville; Greg Elkins, Winchester; John Schickel, Union; Phillip Wheeler, Pikeville; Majority Whip Mike Wilson, Bowling Green; Max Wise, R-Campbellsville.

Willner is “sure there will be efforts” to block the executive order, she told the Lantern.??

“There are people who, I think, willfully misunderstand what this is about, and that this is a practice that traumatizes people for decades, for the rest of their lives, and that ends lives prematurely,” she said. “And for people to misunderstand this is beyond disappointing. I will do everything I can to make sure that any efforts to turn this back will fail, and I really hope that they will.”?

Protections ‘at long last’?

Advocates for mental health in Kentucky praised Beshear’s action.

Sheila Schuster, the executive director of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, called the practice “torture” and teared up as she spoke alongside Beshear in the Capitol Rotunda.?

Her coalition has listed ending conversion therapy as a top priority for the legislature for nearly a decade, citing the “harm” the practice causes.

“While we have not been successful in the legislature, it’s not for lack of effort from our heroines and heroes,” Schuster said.

Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, said Beshear would “save countless Kentucky kids’ lives” with the move.

“Today, we all join Governor Beshear to send a crystal clear message to all of Kentucky’s queer kids and their families,” Hartman said. “You are perfect as you are.”

Eric Russ, the executive director of the Kentucky Psychological Association, called conversion therapy a discredited practice that “has no place in the mental health care of LGBTQ youth.”?

“We know that survivors of conversion therapy not only do not change their sexual orientation, but have worse mental health outcomes, including self blame, guilt, shame, anxiety, depression,” Russ said. “We know the best thing we can do as mental health providers is to affirm the identity of the kids in our care. When a kid walks into a licensed mental health professional’s office with their family, we have an ethical obligation to provide them care that is supportive, evidence based and affirming to their sexual orientation identity.”?

Superintendent Demetrius Liggins included this rendering in his presentation to a legislative committee in Frankfort, Aug. 20, 2024.

Republican state lawmakers grilled the Fayette County Public Schools superintendent Tuesday over the design of restrooms in a new middle school, suggesting the district is trying to circumvent the anti-transgender law enacted by the GOP-controlled legislature last year.?

However, Superintendent Demetrus Liggins told the Interim Joint Committee on Education that restrooms in the new Mary E. Britton Middle School were designed to increase student safety by preventing bullying and other bad behavior in restrooms — a problem that data shows has increased statewide. Liggins said the design decisions had nothing to do with the controversial Senate Bill 150, which also limited medical care for transgender minors.

“This has nothing to do with Senate Bill 150, but we can see from the data that when students are supervised, behavior incidents go down,” Liggins said in response to a question from Rep. Candy Massaroni, R-Bardstown. “That’s just common knowledge.”

Massaroni had asked if the design was “a way just to get around” the 2023 legislation that, among other provisions, bans people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that “are reserved for students of a different biological sex” in schools.?

The committee’s discussion, which lasted nearly an hour, signaled a renewal of Republican lawmakers’ conversations about preventing transgender students in Kentucky schools from using bathrooms of the gender they identify with.

Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, criticized what he called a gender-neutral restroom design in a presentation to the committee and called it an attempt to bypass requirements of the 2023 law.

The design features private stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors and an open communal sink area that can be observed and supervised from the hallway.?

Liggins told lawmakers that the school’s principal has decided to segregate boys and girls into separate restroom areas. He said the new configuration will enable adults to better supervise “restrooms in general.”?

The superintendent said the district’s advisory council on safety saw a need to address supervision of students in hallways and restrooms. Parents and other stakeholders also had a chance to participate in the design process, he said, without raising concerns about the restrooms design.

Liggins highlighted issues the school district faced from a 2021 TikTok trend inspiring damage and theft, mostly in boys’ bathrooms. He added that vandalism cost the district more than $42,000 in repairs. More recently, the school district and others across the nation are trying to prevent students from vaping or using electronic cigarettes in restrooms, Liggins added.?

According to the Kentucky 2022-23 School Safety Report, schools have seen an increase in behavior events reported in bathrooms, with more than 15,000 that school year. In the 2018-19 school year, 4,980 behavior events in bathrooms were reported.?

Henry Clay High School, which is part of Fayette County Public Schools, recently announced it would close restrooms during transitions between classes unless there is a medical need.?

Lockett, whose district includes part of southern Fayette County, called on his fellow legislators to back a bill he had drafted that would require all Kentucky public schools with more than 100 students to have at least 90% of their restrooms designated for one gender — allowing the remaining 10% to be “all access restrooms.” He added that he welcomes input from others on his proposal. The General Assembly can take action on legislation when it reconvenes in January.?

“We expect our schools to be safe, learning environments, not social experiments,” Lockett said. “We expect that our students shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed, bullied or harassed in school. And at the end of the day, we want our public schools, including Fayette County, to be the best that they can be.”

Lockett referred to renderings of a “gender-neutral open-concept” restroom in Britton Middle School, which will open on Polo Club Boulevard near Hamburg in 2025.?

But Lockett’s “gender-neutral” description is incorrect, a school district spokesperson told the Lexington Herald-Leader after the meeting. “There are individual stalls in pods with sinks outside and signage will designate if the pod is for girls or boys,” FCPS spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith told the newspaper.

Davidson-Smith also told the Kentucky Lantern that Lockett’s district does not include the new middle school, so none of his constituents would be impacted by the design and thus were not contacted to give input to the school district.

Eunice Montfort, of Frankfort, addressed the committee as a concerned citizen. She said she has ?worked as a health care administrator and in the construction industry and “did encounter individuals who were transgendered” in both careers. She said she opposed “co-ed bathrooms” and thought they were “a terrible idea.”?

In his remarks to the committee, Lockett presented a hypothetical situation where a sixth-grade girl tells her parents that she’s uncomfortable sharing a gender-neutral bathroom with male classmates and faces embarrassment.?

“She uses the restroom, possibly anyway, and enters a stall that a boy just came out of,” Lockett said. “There is urine all over the seat and floor of the stall — because we know how middle school boys are — and so this allows her experience to be even worse.”

Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, said that as an elementary school teacher, her perspective was “completely different than the perspective that Rep. Lockett brings.” She said when a fifth-grade class goes to the restroom, a teacher stands in the hall as kids line up to enter when a stall opens, but the students aren’t supervised in the closed-off restroom.?

Bojanowski said she recently passed a class going to the bathroom at her school and a student told the teacher another child had punched them in the restroom, but “what can the teacher say? She is not in the room.”

“As an educator, I would applaud this design,” she said. “You can have a teacher or an adult standing, watching, sending the kids into the area one at a time to use the restroom in the enclosed stalls, and then they wash their hands and they come out, and you have … eyes on them every minute, except for when they understandably have their own privacy.”?

A few lawmakers did ask some questions of presenters during the meeting, but Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville, asked committee Chairman Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, “why we needed to cut off questioning and rush the meeting” before going to the next item on the agenda.

“Because we have two more items on the agenda, plus about 12 or 13 administrative regulations to get through today,” Tipton said.?

“I’m happy to stay. Anybody else?” Raymond said in reply. “Everybody happy to stay a little bit longer?”?

Tipton said to Raymond he didn’t know “how long you’ve been in the General Assembly” and added that “you should know by now that we have time restraints on how long we can keep the room,” referring to the meeting room in the Capitol annex.?

Raymond offered that she’s been a member of the legislature for six years. She then asked what event would be in the room next and when it started.?

“Rep. Raymond, I’m just following the rules given to us by the LRC (Legislative Research Commission),” Tipton said. “And you’ve just caused us a delay.”?

Raymond previously announced that she is not seeking reelection to the General Assembly to instead run for a seat on Louisville Metro Council.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional comments Wednesday morning.?

The Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati is home to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether a case involving former University of Louisville professor Dr. Allan M. Josephson’s comments about how to treat gender dysphoria should go to a jury trial.?

Judges heard oral arguments Tuesday morning, the latest in a roughly five-year legal battle to reinstate Josephson as chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and reimburse him for legal fees.?

It’s unclear when the court could rule. Should it side with Josephson, the case will return to district court and undergo a jury trial, Travis C. Barham, one of Josephson’s lawyers, told the Lantern. Should it rule against Josephson, Barham said, he can request a review from the full 6th Circuit.

Josephson is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm. He argues that university officials punished and then fired him in 2019 because of what he said during a panel discussion about children experiencing gender dysphoria.

Jeremy Rogers, who argued opposite Barham, has not responded to a Lantern email seeking an interview.?

During oral arguments Rogers said actions by the individual UofL officials who are being sued by Josephson were not a violation of his constitutional rights.

But Barham argued that as an employee of an institution that gets public dollars, Josephson should enjoy free speech protections.?“A victory for Dr. Josephson is a victory for everybody,” Barham said. “The irony here is that the university is advancing a legal position that would nuke the free speech rights of all professors, of all persuasions, of all viewpoints.”?

But, he added: “Whether you agree with Dr. Josephson, whether you disagree with Dr. Josephson on the issue, we should all be in favor of the idea that professors should be able to express (their views) freely, without censorship and without punishment.”?

The case?

The 2017 comments in question were met with criticism from Josephson’s colleagues, who saw them as anti-LGBTQ and “demanded that the University take disciplinary action against” him, court documents allege.?

Before this, Josephson was chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology for more than a decade.?

The Courier Journal reported in 2019 that the professor made the comments while on a panel before The Heritage Foundation, a D.C.-based conservative think tank. Those comments included:?

• The “notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.”
• “Transgender ideology neglects the child’s need for developing coping and problem-solving skills necessary to meet developmental challenges.”?
• Parents should “use their collective wisdom in guiding their child to align with his or her biological sex.”

Court documents say that within seven weeks of the comments, “defendants demanded that he resign his position as division chief and effectively become a junior faculty member.”??

Barham was feeling hopeful after Tuesday’s arguments, which he said went “very well.”

“It is … frustrating to attorneys, but it’s even more frustrating to clients with the way that these cases sometimes unfold in a very slow motion fashion,” he said. “This case really should be in front of a jury….So I hope that the judges will make a decision quickly.”

Kim Davis, then the Rowan county clerk, waved to supporters at a rally outside the Carter County Detention Center on Sept. 8, 2015 in Grayson. Davis was ordered to jail for contempt of court after refusing a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Kim Davis, then the Rowan County clerk, made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to several same-sex couples based on her religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, based in Orlando, Florida, and labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed the brief Monday with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, according to a news release from Liberty Counsel and first reported by Jezebel.?

Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a Tuesday press release that “Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority.”

“This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation,” Staver said.?

U.S. District Judge David Bunning in 2015 ordered Davis to jail for five days for contempt for refusing to comply with a court order. Bunning earlier this year ordered Davis to pay ?$260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the couples she refused a marriage license. Bunning had earlier ordered Davis to pay the couple, David Ermold and David Moore, $100,000 in damages for violating their constitutional rights. Liberty Counsel is appealing Bunning’s decisions.

Davis lost her bid for reelection as Rowan County clerk in 2018.

Chris Hartman, the director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, told the Lantern Tuesday that the latest legal move on Davis’ behalf is “sad and desperate” but also within the realm of possibility under the current U.S. Supreme Court.

“The threat of anti-LGBTQ hate groups … is real, however, and it comes as no surprise that they are seeking to overturn LGBTQ marriage in America. With an arch-conservative Supreme Court that’s already upended half a century of abortion rights, anything is unfortunately possible.”?

Court documents filed by Liberty Counsel point specifically to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, saying the court should overturn Obergefell for the same reasons. In the abortion case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court could use the same rationale to overturn earlier decisions on same-sex marriage and access to contraception.

“Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution,” say court documents filed by Liberty Counsel. ?

In a statement to the Lantern, Staver reiterated: “We want to overturn the jury verdict because there is no evidence to support it, to grant religious accommodation for Kim Davis and to overturn the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges.”

Ermold and Moore were married Oct. 31, 2015 in an outdoor ceremony on the Morehead State University campus, which the student newspaper, The Trail Blazer, covered.?

Read Liberty Counsel’s brief

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Thursday passed?a measure to reverse an Education Department rule seeking to extend federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ students, though President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the legislation should it land on his desk.

House passage of the resolution on a party-line vote,?210-205, is part of a barrage of GOP pushback at the state and federal levels to the?Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX?since its April release. For all schools that receive federal funding, the rule protects against discrimination for students based on “sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

Twenty-six states with GOP attorneys general have?sued to block?the rule, and courts have temporarily blocked it from going into effect in 14 states on August 1.

The 14 states with temporary blocks are: Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller?introduced the legislation?in early June. A week later, the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved it. Miller’s resolution seeks to reverse the rule through the?Congressional Review Act, a procedural tool Congress can use to overturn certain actions from federal agencies.

In the Senate, Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith?also introduced legislation?in June to try to block the final rule under the same tool. The Senate version has gathered over 30 Republican cosponsors.

Rep. Virginia Foxx — chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and a fierce opponent of the administration’s final rule — said during the floor debate Wednesday that she wanted to preserve Title IX, which helped equalize funding for women’s sports and education programs beginning in 1972.

“Title IX ushered in a golden era for women’s competition and education,” the North Carolina Republican said. “There is sanctity in the community and tradition of these memories, these spaces and these opportunities for young girls.”

Regardless of whether the attempt to roll back the measure is successful in the Democratic-controlled Senate,?Biden’s veto threat leaves virtually no possibility it could be adopted this year.

Democrats, LGBTQ advocates in opposition?

Democrats and LGBTQ advocates have described the effort to overturn the rule as motivated by misinformation and fear.

“Unfortunately, this resolution has been clouded by misinformation, unfounded fears and with some, just hatred of transgender individuals,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, during the debate.

Oregon’s Rep. Suzanne Bonamici — ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education — said the resolution was “another attempt to undercut this administration’s efforts to empower survivors and protect all Americans from discrimination.”

“If Republicans truly cared about protecting women and children, they would stop this prejudiced rhetoric and take action on bills that would actually protect women from discrimination and harassment and defend women’s reproductive health care, make child care more affordable, preserve opportunities in workplaces for all parents, especially women,” Bonamici said.

Scott called on the House to “reject these narratives and focus on real issues of safety and equity.”

Final rule blocked in more states?

Meanwhile, challenges to the rule are playing out in a handful of federal courts.

Last week, Judge John Broomes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in the Sunflower State, along with Alaska, Utah and Wyoming.

Broomes also halted the rule from taking effect in “the schools attended by the members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United, as well as the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty,” all groups that sued alongside the four states, per the?order.

Under Broomes’ order, the rule is also halted in an Oklahoma public school attended by a minor who is one of the plaintiffs.

In June, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana?issued a temporary injunction?barring the final rule from taking effect there, along with Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

In Kentucky federal court, Chief Judge Danny Reeves?temporarily blocked the final rule?in the Bluegrass State, plus Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia. Reeves rejected the department’s request for a partial stay of the injunction while its appeal plays out, per a?Wednesday court filing.

The Education Department has confirmed it is appealing the other two rulings but did not have an update Wednesday on whether it is filing a notice of appeal on the most recent ruling in the Kansas federal court.

The spokesperson reiterated earlier this week that the agency has “asked the trial courts to allow the bulk of the final rule to take effect in these states as scheduled, on August 1, while the appeals are pending.”

LGBTQ advocacy groups push back on GOP effort

Allen Morris, policy director for the advocacy group National LGBTQ Task Force, said the vote was part of a pattern of anti-LGBTQ policy measures.

“When you look at the rise in hatred and the rise in violence and the rise of young LGBTQ individuals not having the support that they need, where suicide rates are high, it is disappointing to see our opposition go against us with such a high level of intention,” he said.

Morris told States Newsroom that “a lot of what is happening with this extremism is not founded in truth.”

“It is founded in ways to spew hate and to spew fear. It is a lot of fear mongering, and it’s anything to make people feel like their backs are up against the wall, or as if they don’t have the power,” he said.

Echoing a previous statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said it “does not comment on pending legislation” and emphasized that all schools receiving federal funding are obligated to comply with the new regulations as a condition of receiving those funds.

The department has yet to finalize a separate rule establishing new criteria for transgender athletes.

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to review a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth could have implications for a similar law in Kentucky.?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal asked the court to review the Tennessee law after a ruling by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. That same appellate court overturned a district judge’s decisions and also allowed Kentucky’s law to take effect last year.?

Like Kentucky’s law, the Tennessee law prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors that includes puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. The Supreme Court will consider if Tennessee’s law violates the Equal Protection clause in the 14th Amendment.?

Kentucky’s Republican-controlled General Assembly easily passed its law in the 2023 legislative session, overturning a veto from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. In addition to the ban on gender-affirming care for minors, the law included directing local school districts to make policies keeping people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that “are reserved for students of a different biological sex” and placing restrictions on sex education in public schools.?

The Biden administration also requested the Supreme Court review the Tennessee case.?

In a statement, the ACLU of Kentucky said that while the court’s review does not formally include the Kentucky law, the outcome could impact Kentucky. ACLU-KY and the National Center for Lesbian Rights represent parents who are challenging Kentucky’s law.?

“Our legal team is pleased that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider reversing the Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding these cruel and unconstitutional laws,” said ACLU-KY Legal Director Corey Shapiro. “Our clients and their doctors simply want to provide the best medical care that is necessary for these amazing youth. We remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree and ultimately strike down these bans.”

According to SCOTUSblog, a decision could come from the Supreme Court in the summer of 2025 after arguments are heard in the fall.?

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. (Photo by Getty Images)

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled against Biden administration guidance on how schools should protect students from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The court ruled Friday that the guidance from the U.S. Department of Education is invalid, upholding a lower court ruling. Kentucky is among the 20 states that supported the challenge to the Title IX guidance. Former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office filed briefs supporting the plaintiffs.

Most of the states in the case, including Kentucky, have bans on transgender athletes competing on school teams corresponding to their gender identity. The federal rules could have been at odds with those state laws or regulations, the plaintiffs argued.?

Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who was among the coalition of AGs, said the ban on transgender athletes “protects female students on the athletic field, as well as in bathrooms and locker rooms.”?

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Kentucky made a similar finding in a case brought by several GOP attorneys general, including Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman. That lawsuit is aimed at rules the Department of Education issued after issuing the guidance.

In a statement about that lawsuit, Coleman said the “ruling recognized the 50-plus years of educational opportunities Title IX has created for students and athletes.”?

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. (Photo by Getty Images)

A federal judge has blocked new Title IX rules, including those aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in K-12 schools, and sided with Republican attorneys general in several states — including Kentucky.?

Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky on Monday issued a ruling siding with Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman and his counterparts in five other states. The ruling prevents the U.S. Department of Education from “implementing, enacting, enforcing, or taking any action to enforce the Final Rule, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” which was set to begin Aug. 1.?

Coleman and the GOP attorneys general filed the lawsuit in April. At the time, they argued the Department of Education “used rulemaking power to convert a law designed to equalize opportunities for both sexes into a far broader regime of its own making” with the new Title IX regulations.?

Reeves limited the injunction to the plaintiff-states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia.

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 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.

In their complaint, the state attorneys general said that under the Biden rule, “Men who identify as women will, among other things, have the right to compete within programs and activities that Congress made available to women so they can fairly and fully pursue academic and athletic excellence — turning Title IX’s protections on their head. … And anyone who expresses disagreement with this new status quo risks Title IX discipline for prohibited harassment.”?

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.

Reeves wrote in his opinion that “the Department of Education seeks to derail deeply rooted law” created by the implementation of Title IX.?

“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,” he wrote. “The Department’s interpretation conflicts with the plain language of Title IX and therefore exceeds its authority to promulgate regulations under that statute.”?

In a press release, Coleman’s office said Monday that schools that would fail to comply with the new rules would risk losing federal funding. Citing the Department of Education, the office said Kentucky’s public and private schools received a total of $1.1 billion in federal funding last year.

“As a parent and as Attorney General, I joined this effort to protect our women and girls from harm. Today’s ruling recognized the 50-plus years of educational opportunities Title IX has created for students and athletes,” Coleman said in the press release. “We’re grateful for the court’s ruling, and we will continue to fight the Biden Administration’s attempts to rip away protections to advance its political agenda.”

A spokesperson for the department said it was reviewing the ruling.

“Title IX guarantees that no person experience sex discrimination in a federally-funded educational environment,” the spokesperson added. “The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the Title IX statutory guarantee. The Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student.”

Kentucky politicians react

Reeves wrote in his opinion that the states represented in the lawsuit argued that the Title IX rules would “invalidate scores of States’ and schools’ sex-separated sports policies.” The Kentucky General Assembly passed such a law in 2022 to require athletes in schools to play on teams associated with their biological sex

A sponsor of that law, Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, applauded the opinion in a statement, saying it “or reining in excessive and capricious federal government overreach, in this case, by President Biden’s U.S. Department of Education.” He?added that he viewed the opinion as “as further affirmation of the necessity of legislation championed by the Republican supermajorities in the Kentucky General Assembly and defended by our Republican attorney general.”?

Another lawmaker who backed similar legislation, Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, said the ruling was “a move that will preserve the integrity of a federal policy created more than half a century ago to ensure biological females can compete on a level playing field.”?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear previously said he hoped Coleman avoided “fear mongering” in the lawsuit. In a Monday interview with the Lantern, Beshear said he had not read the opinion, but believed the lawsuit would be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.?

“I understand that there are different opinions, especially when it comes to sports and fairness and the rest, but I hope that we talk about this in ways that doesn’t ostracize anyone, that doesn’t demonize anyone, and that we can talk about what rules should be in sports without attacking anyone,” the governor told the Lantern.?

Read U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves’ ruling

The church formerly known as Seddon United Methodist in Maysville painted over part of its name as members decided to leave the denomination. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jack Brammer)

After decades of intense debate that led to about half of their churches in Kentucky leaving the denomination, United Methodist delegates voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to no longer forbid gay clergy and same-sex marriage.

The vote by the delegates at the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C., was 692-51. The conference was the church’s first legislative gathering in five years.

United Methodist Church in Kentucky?losing congregations to rift over LGBTQ inclusion

The historic vote removed the church’s 1984 ban on ordaining or appointing clergy who are “self-avowing practicing homosexuals.”

Another measure winning approval forbids district superintendents — regional administrators — from penalizing clergy for performing a same-sex wedding or declining to perform one.??

Also, superintendents can not forbid a church from hosting a same-sex wedding.

The changes on ordination will take effect immediately after General Conference concludes on Friday, while the changes on marriage policy permissions will begin Jan. 1, 2025.?

The church’s news agency reported that “delegates and observers applauded after the vote.? Many hugged and more than a few cried, in a mass release of joy for those who had pushed, some for decades to make the United Methodist Church fully inclusive.”

In a Facebook Live video posted on the Kentucky Conference website, Kentucky Bishop Leonard Fairley said he knows “that some are disappointed, and some are rejoicing. But I pray that this is a way we can stay at the table and continue to work together and do the ministry and the mission of Jesus Christ.”

Fairley added, “The consultation of the district superintendents and the bishops and the local church have always been important and that does not change with this decision.”?

He appeared in the video with two of the five Kentucky clergy delegates – Tom Grieb, retired pastor from Goshen, and Tami Coleman, pastor of Hanson United Methodist Church near Madisonville.

The other clergy delegates from Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Conference, were Andrew Singh, pastor of Erlanger United Methodist Church; Iosmar Alvarez, senior pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Louisville,? and David Grout, retired minister and formerly of Florence Methodist Church.

Lay delegates from Kentucky were listed on the website as Mark Stallions, president and chief executive officer of Owen Electric Cooperatives; John R. Denham, Mason County beef cattle farmer; Michael Watts, member of Shelbyville United Methodist; Elaine Daugherty, member of Morgantown United Methodist Church, and Linda Underwood King, retired educator who is a member of Christ Church in Louisville.

Cathy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Conference, said the delegates voted by secret ballot and that she did not consider it appropriate to ask them how they voted.

The LGBTQ issue certainly has been controversial.

At a special session of the United Methodist General Conference in 2019, delegates made it possible for a church to disaffiliate for reasons of conscience around issues of human sexuality and keep its property after fulfilling certain financial obligations.?

The disaffiliation process in the United Methodist Church ended Dec. 31.

The Kentucky United Methodist Conference had 749 churches in 2019, says the Lewis Center for Church in Washington, D.C., in a report issued earlier this year.

Of them, 366 – or 49 percent – left the church, the report said.?

Of the conferences nationwide? that recorded more than 30 percent church disaffiliations, the report said, Kentucky ranked fourth highest. It trailed Northwest Texas with 81 percent disaffiliations, North Alabama with 51 percent and Texas with 50 percent.? Indiana had 30 percent disaffiliations.

The Lewis Center report did not analyze the financial impact of disaffiliations on the conferences, but it said “it can be expected to vary with the percentage and size of congregations lost. Obviously, the impact is not felt equally across conferences. Some face minimal impact while others must make major realignments.”

Asked about any belt-tightening moves by the Kentucky Conference such as reducing its number of superintendents, spokeswoman Bruce said the conference now has five superintendents. She did not say how many the conference had a year ago.

“I would not say it was in a cost-cutting move. It is just how the appointments worked out this year,” she said.??

She did note that the Lexington district and the Northern Kentucky district are being served by the same superintendent and that Kevin Burney, who is the conference’s director of ministerial services, will be superintendent for the Heartland district in the Louisville area beginning July 1 while retaining his current position.

Kentucky Methodists tally congregations lost to LGBTQ rift as a conservative alternative grows

The New York Times reported that the policy changes in the denomination could prompt departures of some international churches, particularly in Africa, where more conservative sexual values prevail and where same-sex activity is criminalized in some countries.

Before the disaffiliations, the United Methodist denomination was the third largest in the United States with a 5.4 million membership and presence in almost every county. It has about 4.6 million members in other countries, mainly in Africa.

Mike Powers, an elder in the Global Methodist Church who is serving as president pro tem of its MidSouth Provisional Annual Conference, is helping with efforts in Kentucky to attract disaffiliated churches to the two-year-old denomination. Global Methodist doctrine does not recognize same-sex marriages or the ordination of openly gay Methodists.

Powers said Global Methodist policy is to respond to requests initiated by any church, pastor or lay person interested in the new denomination but not to reach out to members and churches unless invited. He said Wednesday that more than 100 of the disaffiliated churches in Kentucky have been approved, applied or are inquiring about joining the Global Methodists. ?

The Global Methodist Church, based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said in a release that it was aware of the vote at the United Methodist General Conference but that it operates independently of other denominations, has no affiliation with any of the United Methodist decisions and does not want to comment on the actions of other religious organizations.

It added that it has more than 4,500 members worldwide.

Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign based in Louisville that advocates for gay rights in Kentucky, said of the United Methodist vote, “It’s such a wonderful move in the right direction in the tenets of the faith.”

This story has been updated with new information.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14, 2024.?(Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. House lawmakers will no longer be able to request earmarked funding for some nonprofits under a change in eligibility made by the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

The alteration is related to an uproar during last year’s annual government funding process, when House Republicans, who are in the majority, included three LGBTQ projects in one of their spending bills and then stripped that funding during a tense public markup.

The change to eligibility in the House affects nonprofits that fall under the Economic Development Initiative account within the Transportation-HUD spending bill, one of the dozen funding bills that are written by congressional appropriators.

The new guidance laid out by Chairman Tom Cole doesn’t apply to House lawmakers seeking funding for nonprofits in the other accounts eligible for earmark requests.

It also doesn’t affect how the earmark process will work on the Senate side. That means there is another avenue for lawmakers to secure funding for LGBTQ projects if they decide to make those requests and the Senate spending panel chooses to include it in its version of the bill.

“Similar to previous reforms made in this Congress, this change aims to ensure projects are consistent with the community development goals of the federal program,” Cole wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter.

Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, became chairman of the powerful spending panel earlier this month after the former chairwoman, Kay Granger of Texas, decided to leave that leadership post early.

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the committee, released a written statement, saying the change “is a seismic shift, as nearly half of all the 2024 House-funded EDI projects were directed to non-profit recipients.”

“In order to accommodate the extreme Republican wing, Republicans are trying to root out any help for the LGBTQ+ community,” DeLauro wrote. “They are willing to hurt their own religious organizations, seniors, and veterans.”

The eligibility change, she wrote, would exclude House lawmakers from requesting funding for “YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other groups vital to our communities.”

Three LGBTQ projects

House Republicans originally included $1.8 million in funding for the William Way LGBT Center in Philadelphia, $970,000 for the LGBT Center of Greater Reading’s Transitional Housing Program in Pennsylvania and $850,000 for affordable senior housing at LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc. in Massachusetts in their Transportation-HUD spending bill released last summer.

All three projects were requested by House lawmakers, the first step in the earmark process.

The projects were funded under the Economic Development Initiatives account that at the time was eligible for earmarks in the Housing and Urban Development section of the Transportation-HUD spending bill.

Cole, then-chairman of that subcommittee, removed the three projects through a so-called manager’s amendment that made numerous changes to the bill during committee debate.

While manager’s amendments are standard and typically bipartisan, the removal infuriated Democrats on the committee, who urged their GOP colleagues to reconsider during a heated debate last July.

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan said at the time removing the funding was an insult to LGBTQ Americans as well as their families and allies.

“The fact that you would take away members’ earmarks simply because they refer to the LGBTQI+ community is insane, is bigoted,” Pocan said in July.

The final batch of spending bills Congress approved in March, following House-Senate negotiations, was slated to include $1 million for the William Way LGBT Center in Philadelphia, since the Pennsylvania senators also requested funding. But that was removed from the bill after it had been released, setting off a confusing blame game among lawmakers.

The final Labor-HHS-Education spending bill approved in March included $850,000 for LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc., MA, for services for older adults within the Administration for Community Living account within the HHS section of the bill.

That funding in Massachusetts had been stripped from the House’s Transportation-HUD bill by GOP lawmakers, but was also requested by the state’s two senators and included in the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill within that chamber.

That final spending bill also included $400,000 for the Garden State Equality Education Fund, Inc., for trauma-informed strategies to support LGBTQ+ youth in New Jersey, within the Innovation and Improvement account for the Department of Education.

That funding was never requested by House lawmakers, but was asked for by the state’s two senators.

The Kentucky Senate, Feb. 27, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — A bill that open government advocates warn would introduce loopholes into Kentucky’s open records law could make its way to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk when lawmakers return to Frankfort later this week.?

The final two days of the 60-day regular session — Friday and Monday — are set aside to consider gubernatorial vetoes of bills that both chambers have passed. The Republican supermajority can easily reach the simple majority of votes needed to override ?vetoes.

Legislation that has yet to make it through both chambers also could come up in the final two days, including a bill to end the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers and a maternal health bill that ran aground in the Senate after a late amendment was added in committee.

The Senate is expected to consider confirming Robbie Fletcher as the state education commissioner, along with appointments to other positions. Thanks to a law enacted last year, it will be the first time the education commissioner has required Senate confirmation.

Any bill that lawmakers pass would be subject to a successful veto by Beshear because the legislature would have no chance to override it.

‘Bad actors’

Beshear has voiced support for the controversial changes to the open records law proposed in House Bill 509. During his weekly news conference last week he said he needs to see the bill’s final form before deciding what action to take on the bill. “We’ll review it when it gets to me.”

The House passed the bill, but the Senate did not give it a floor vote ahead of the veto period. The Senate could give final passage to the bill when both chambers reconvene Friday and Monday.

HB 509 would require state and local government agencies to provide email accounts to public officials on which to conduct official business. However, the bill doesn’t address what happens to public records created on private devices.?

Beshear told reporters he thinks the bill would be more effective than current law in deterring officials from conducting public business on their personal devices or email accounts. He traced the controversy to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), which has waged a so far unsuccessful court fight to block release of commissioners’ text messages. The challenge is now before the state Supreme Court.

“Fish and Wildlife hadn’t issued state email addresses to their commissioners and they insisted on texting each other on their own devices,” Beshear said. “That’s wrong. So, right now, what the law says is if you do that, that is an open record. But all we can do in terms of enforcement is ask that person ‘would you please look through your phone and take snapshots of anything that we’re asking for and send them to us now?’ Do you think a bad actor who’s trying to get around the open records request is going to do that and send them to you?”

HB 509 would destroy Kentucky’s long tradition of openness. And Beshear knows it.

Beshear said HB 509’s mandate that official business be conducted on government email accounts could aid transparency by making government agencies responsible for the records. “What it does is take whether you get a record away from a potential bad actor and put it with the agency that can secure those records.”

Agencies could discipline employees who violate HB 509’s mandates — by using a personal cell phone or email account for official communications, for example — but it’s unclear if and how those records could be publicly disclosed. The bill includes no penalties for violations by elected officials. The bill also does not require agencies to search for public records on personal devices.?

When asked if he thought Beshear would veto the bill, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers told reporters as the veto period began: “You’d have to ask the governor on that. I do not know. I don’t know what he would do.”?

The open records challenge against the KDFWR was spurred by a former member of the KDFWR’s governing board requesting text messages among Fish and Wildlife officials and lawmakers. The governor and Republican legislature have also clashed over the Kentucky Senate not confirming gubernatorial appointments to the KDFWR’s governing board. Five appointments are? awaiting confirmation this session.?

Here’s a look at where some other high-profile legislation stands:?

Momnibus?

After picking up some controversial baggage in the last leg of the legislative session, the maternal health bill called “Momnibus” failed to get final passage.?

The bill would incentivize Kentuckians to get prenatal care by adding pregnancy to the list of qualifying life events for health insurance coverage, among other things. It had bipartisan support.

But a late amendment borrowed language from a bill filed by an anti-abortion lawmaker that requires hospitals and midwives to refer patients who have nonviable pregnancies or whose fetuses have been diagnosed with fatal conditions to perinatal palliative care services. Abortion rights advocates say the requirement could become coercive.

The bill awaits Senate passage and Beshear’s action.?

Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate have filed amendments

Democrats in the Senate have filed amendments to loosen the state’s near-total ban on abortion by adding exceptions for rape, incest and lethal fetal anomalies ?and changing the word “baby” to “fetus.”?

It could still pass in the final two days but would have to be a version that meets Beshear’s approval because lawmakers would be unable to override a veto.??

Freestanding birth centers?

A bill to remove the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers that meet a set of criteria was approved by the House. It has had two readings in the Senate but still needs to pass a Senate committee.?

A Senate Resolution to reestablish a task force to study certificate of need in Kentucky has also not passed.?

Crime bill awaits action by Beshear

A sweeping crime bill backed by Jefferson County House Republicans has been awaiting action by the governor for about a week. House Bill 5 has been hotly debated, with House Democrats futilely arguing on the last day before the veto period against the measure.??

The bill includes new or increased criminal penalties, bans street camping and imposes a three strikes rule on violent offenders. It requires prisoners convicted of violent offenses to serve 85% of their sentences instead of the current 20% before becoming eligible for parole, and classifies more crimes as violent.

HB 5 has gained opposition from across the political spectrum, as both progressive and conservative groups have argued that a more in-depth fiscal analysis is needed before implementing the legislation. However, the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police and some families of deceased crime victims have expressed support for the bill.?

Beshear told reporters Thursday that he was still reviewing the bill and was supportive of parts of it but concerned about other sections. He added that he supported the carjacking provision but had reservations about provisions that could criminalize homelessness by creating the crime of illegal street camping.?

He said a part of the bill that would “allow for the destruction of a weapon used in a murder” is close to him a year after the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville. The bill would allow someone to purchase such a weapon at auction and ask Kentucky State Police to destroy it. The funds are used for local government and law enforcement grants.?

Local officials highlighted the issue of the auctions after the shooting last year. One of the victims, Tommy Elliot, was a close friend of Beshear’s.?

“Thankfully, the ATF seized that weapon, and it was destroyed,” Beshear said of the weapon used in the bank shooting. “Otherwise, I was going to have to watch a weapon that murdered my friend be auctioned to the highest bidder.”?

Beshear also added that he wished legislation like this would be broken up into separate bills. He can only issue line-item vetoes on budget bills.?

Changes to horse racing and gambling oversight

Beshear can also take action on another bill that was passed by the General Assembly just before the veto period began that would dissolve the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Department of Charitable Gaming.?

Senate Bill 299 would form a new government corporation to oversee the duties of the commission and department. Both of those are currently under the Public Protection Cabinet. The House and Senate have both given approval on the measure.

The bill has been backed by the legislature’s Republican leadership. In a joint meeting of the Senate and House economic development committees, Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer and House Speaker David Osborne presented the bill.?

Beshear told reporters that it does not impact gubernatorial appointment powers but would create an independent corporation that could “take regulatory action and punish different groups,” such as trainers. That raises a question about the constitutionality of the bill, he said, as an executive branch officer will not be over the corporation.

“So, how are you independent but have full regulatory and enforcement authority? I think that’s the thing to work through there,” Beshear said. “We’ve never seen it before. We don’t know of another group that acts that way, so a little complex legally.”?

New hurdles for fossil fuel-fired power plant retirements

Beshear has yet to act on Senate Bill 349, a Senate president-backed bill that would add new bureaucratic hurdles to slow the retirement of fossil fuel-fired power plants. Before utilities could retire a fossil fuel-fired plant, they would have to notify a newly created board, whose membership would be dominated by fossil fuel industries.

Investor-owned utilities and environmental advocacy groups have decried the bill, saying it could keep aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid and burden ratepayers with the costs of their maintenance. Advocates for the bill, including coal industry interests, have argued SB 349 is needed to ensure the reliability of the state’s energy grid, an assertion rebuffed by the leader of Kentucky’s largest utility.

Beshear last month criticized the bill, saying it was going to “take authority” from the state’s utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission, which makes decisions on power plant retirement requests. He said he’s been in the “same place” as some of the people who have pushed for SB 349, but that the proposed board is “not the way” to address the issue.

Limiting power of Louisville’s air pollution regulator

Beshear on Monday vetoed House Bill 136, sponsored by Rep. Jared Bauman, R-Louisville. The bill would prevent the Louisville Air Pollution Control District from issuing fines against industries that self-disclose violations of federal pollution regulations. Critics, including the environmental law group Kentucky Resources Council, say it could give industry in Jefferson County a “free pass” from penalties when a self-disclosure of a violation happens by ending the air pollution regulator’s ability to issue penalties in such cases.

Bauman and other Republicans have argued HB 136 is needed to align air pollution regulations in Jefferson County with the rest of the state. Most Democrats have opposed the bill, worried the bill could create less accountability over air pollution in Jefferson County.?

Criminalizing documentation of meatpacking plants, ag operations without consent?

Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Sen. John Schickel, R-Union and backed by Tyson Foods and Kentucky’s poultry industry, would criminalize using recording equipment or drones at concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and commercial food processing and manufacturing plants without the permission of the operation’s owner or manager. It would also criminalize distributing the footage.

Group alleges ‘hidden-camera’ video reveals ‘cruelty’ in chicken production in Kentucky?

Critics, including animal welfare groups, have said the bill is a so-called “ag gag” bill meant to hide from the public and prevent whistleblowers from exposing the conduct and practices of large-scale, corporate agricultural operations. An animal protection advocacy group released a video from a “hidden-camera” investigation of alleged “cruelty” within Kentucky poultry production, an investigation the group argues would be criminalized under SB 16.?

Schickel and other SB 16 supporters have said the bill is needed to prevent harassment of employees and agricultural operations that provide jobs to Kentucky communities. The bill passed through the legislature largely on party lines.?

Bills that are in the legislative graveyard or near

Anti-DEI bills: Republican efforts to limit or end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public universities and colleges died when the Senate declined to consider changes made in its bill by the House. Any effort to revive anti-DEI legislation would almost certain be vetoed by Beshear.

Drag bill: After several edits to soften the legislation, a bill to place restrictions on adult-oriented businesses with “sexually explicit” performances sputtered on the House side despite passing a committee.??

Vaccine bill: A bill to bar employers and educational institutions from requiring the COVID-19 vaccination for treatment, employment or school, passed in the Senate but failed to advance on the House side.?

Though it could still pass in the final days of the session, Beshear, an outspoken supporter of the vaccines, would likely veto it.?

Abortion bills: None of the bills seeking to loosen Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban were assigned committees, making them effectively dead on arrival.?Those include:?

• A Republican bill to add rape and incest exceptions and clarify doctors can treat ectopic pregnancies?
• A Democratic bill to add rape and incest exceptions.?
• A Democratic bill to roll back all abortion restrictions.?

Loosening state child labor law: A bill that would allow some teenagers to work longer and later hours, voted down and then revived by a Senate committee, still needs final passage through the Senate to get to Beshear’s desk.?

Lawmakers wouldn’t have the chance to override a veto of House Bill 255 from Beshear, who in past comments panned the legislation saying child labor protections are there “for a reason.”?

Education and Labor Cabinet officials have said HB 255 also deletes language in state law that mirrors federal prohibitions on employing 14- and 15-year olds in hazardous occupations, such as jobs involving railroad cars and conveyors, loading and unloading goods from motor vehicles and requiring the use of ladders. State labor officials said they wouldn’t be able to enforce those hazardous occupation standards even if still federally prohibited.?

Bill sponsor Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, who owns a lawn and landscaping company, said his legislation would help minors “gain valuable experience in the workplace.”

Weakening a mine safety protection: House Bill 85, sponsored by Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, would weaken a key workplace protection for coal miners, according to a long-time coal miner safety advocate. Wesley has argued HB 85 is needed to help smaller coal mines continue operating.?The bill would need approval from the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee and three required readings before being sent to the governor, who could veto it without the legislature overriding it.?

A drag performer, Champagne Monroe, reads the children’s book “Rainbow Fish” to a group of children and parents at the public library’s Drag Queen Story Hour in Mobile, Alabama. Much of the drag-related legislation under consideration across states aims to prohibit minors from attending performances and reclassify establishments that host drag shows as adult entertainment spaces, subjecting them to stricter business regulations. (Dan Anderson/The Associated Press)

Drag performances used to be found mostly in the confines of nightlife venues such as clubs and bars.

But drag has stepped into the daylight, with elaborately costumed and made-up performers appearing at library readings and kid-friendly brunches, and a newfound visibility for gender-bending entertainment and self-expression.

“Drag now versus 15 years ago is like night and day,” said Dr. Lady J, a Cleveland-area performer with a doctoral dissertation in drag history. “Drag is so mainstream now. … I grew up in a world where drag queens were this mysterious thing that maybe existed in New York or San Francisco.”

?‘Adult-oriented business’ bill advances in Kentucky legislature, foes call it ‘anti drag’

The growing visibility has made drag performances a target for conservative legislators. Although polls show most Americans don’t support laws to restrict drag performances, lawmakers in states including Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and West Virginia have considered or enacted legislation this session that would prohibit businesses from allowing minors to attend drag shows. Several would impose stricter business regulations on establishments that host drag shows or would ban “obscene live conduct” at state universities.

Supporters of these bills say they are designed to protect children from entertainment that is not appropriate for them, not to target the transgender community. But critics warn that such laws could be used to file criminal charges or discriminate against people who identify as transgender outside of drag performances. This year, 21 drag-related bills have been considered in 12 states, according to the ACLU’s LGBTQ+ bill tracking database. (Some were carried over from last year’s legislative sessions.)

Most of them failed. Of 15 drag bills considered last year, only three were carried over to this year’s legislative sessions, according to the ACLU’s database. Those that become law often face significant legal challenges.

In Kentucky, for the second year in a row, bills to restrict drag performances have died. It’s possible the House could revive Sen. Lindsey Tichenor’s Senate Bill 147 when lawmakers return April 12 and 15, but the legislature would have no time to override an expected veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Last year, a similar bill sponsored by Tichenor also was passed by the Senate only to die in the House.

In Montana, where a law explicitly restricting drag performances was enacted last year, federal court orders have rendered it unenforceable.

Courts also have deemed the laws in Florida, Tennessee and Texas — all of which use similar language about “adult cabaret entertainment” or “sexually oriented businesses” — unenforceable. A federal court ruled that the Texas law was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment.

Legislation restricting gender-affirming care, transgender girls’ participation in school sports and restroom access is also on the table in many states.

Dr. Lady J says drag-related bills deflect attention from deeper issues facing the LGBTQ+ community.

“[These drag-related bills are] distracting people from the actual anti-trans laws that are being passed,” she said. “It’s flashier to talk about drag than it is to talk about what it means to tell a 12-year-old, 14-year-old trans kid they can have hormones one day and the next day to tell them that thing that you thought was going to save your life … the government decided yesterday you don’t get it anymore. Good luck surviving, kid.”

Largely backed by GOP lawmakers, bills affecting drag performances have often surfaced during election cycles, experts pointed out, deployed to mobilize conservative voter bases.

“[Drag] is the latest in a series of LGBTQ-related issues that [some Republicans] have found compelling as a way of firing up their base and getting folks either to contribute money or to come out and vote for them,” said Melissa Michelson, a political scientist and LGBTQ+ politics expert at Menlo College in California.

The focus on drag-related legislation is likely to wane as election season fades, Michelson added. “It’s all about riling up the public. There’s no actual threat. It’s very much an electoral politics phenomenon.”

Dr. Lady J said these efforts aren’t about protecting children but rather about erasing LGBTQ+ visibility from public spaces. When she performs at kid-friendly events, she is deliberate about selecting music and attire that are both appropriate for and captivating to younger audiences, such as a headdress adorned with pony figurines inspired by the popular toy and show “My Little Pony,” Dr. Lady J told Stateline.

“The reality is that a lot of these people just don’t want queer people anywhere near their kids,” she said. “They don’t want their kids to see that you are allowed to grow up and be happy and be a queer person.”

Many who are backing the bills disagree, saying they’re worried about how adult content is seeping into everyday life.

“We’ve really come to a place where things that were always considered adult-oriented have moved into the public sector and have been marketed and advertised at family-friendly events, when truly they were very sexual in nature,” said Tichenor, of Smithfield, in an interview.

State legislative efforts

Tichenor sponsored a bill — which cleared the Kentucky Senate but never got a House vote — ?targeting performances “with explicitly sexual conduct” in “adult-oriented businesses” near places children might be.

Her bill would restrict these businesses from operating within roughly a city block’s distance — about 933 feet — of other establishments serving children, such as schools, playgrounds or day care facilities. Violators risk losing business or liquor licenses and may face cease-and-desist orders. Local governments also would have the power to impose stricter rules.

“A lot of the opposition really isn’t informed [about] exactly what is in the legislation. And it’s really, very simply, putting adult-oriented businesses in the proper place where minors can’t have access to it,” said Tichenor.

When initially introduced, the bill contained language that redefined as adult-oriented businesses establishments that “host sexually explicit drag performances.” Tichenor said she made several adjustments to the bill after meeting with performers who were concerned with the proposed revised definition. The current version of the legislation no longer references all drag, but describes adult cabaret that contains “explicitly sexual conduct.”

“I thought it was very important that we had that definition specific to drag performances that are of a sexual nature and where those can be and where they cannot be,” she said.

This legislative session, only one related measure has been signed into law, in South Dakota. Approved in early March, the law prohibits the state Board of Regents and the public universities it oversees from using state funds or property for “obscene live conduct.”

While the law does not explicitly ban drag shows, some opponents believe it’s a veiled attempt to target them because two bills with similar language, with one explicitly banning drag, died earlier this year.

“It’s kind of impeaching on First Amendment rights –– free expression, freedom of speech,” said Everett Moran, a legislative intern with the Transformation Project Advocacy Network, a South Dakota-based trans advocacy group.

The bills come after controversy erupted in 2022 over a drag show held at South Dakota State University in Brookings that was advertised as kid-friendly. There was backlash, and the Board of Regents set a policy that prohibits programs on campus where minors are present from including specific sexual activities, obscene live conduct or any material meeting the definition of “harmful to minors.”

Proponents of the law said it reflects that policy.

“This [bill] complements [the board’s policy] and says, you know what, this is more than just a policy. This is a law. You broke a law,” Republican Rep. Chris Karr, the bill’s lead sponsor, told colleagues ahead of the bill’s vote in the House in early February. Karr could not be reached for comment for this story.

No one from the Board of Regents testified in favor of or against the bill, but when asked about how the new law would be enforced, the board said in a statement that it “does not currently authorize or expend public funds to support obscene live conduct, as defined in codified law 22-24-27, on any South Dakota public university campus.”

South Dakota state Rep. Linda Duba, a Democrat who voted against the measure, said the law will not affect the transgender community. Still, she said, the law is unnecessary and “purely political.”

“It’s an election year, and the [Republican] supermajority decided this would be something they thought we should do even though we have policies in place that make this bill unnecessary,” Duba said in an interview. “We’ve already defined in current statute what obscenity is, and we have a policy in place by the Board of Regents, and the bill doesn’t do anything different.”

A different time

In West Virginia, a bill introduced in January would have amended the state’s indecent exposure law to criminalize engaging in “obscene matter.” The bill’s definition of “obscene matter” includes “any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances, or display to any minor.”

The bill’s lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Mike Azinger, could not be reached for comment, and co-sponsor, Republican Sen. Robert Karnes, declined Stateline’s interview request. Before the state’s legislative session ended, the bill was sent to the Judiciary Committee.

In Missouri, a Senate and House bill would each add performances featuring male or female impersonations to the definition of sexually oriented businesses. Both bills are in committee. Under the bills, performers could potentially face felony charges for performing in public spaces where the?show could be viewed by a child.

And in Nebraska, legislation that would restrict minors — defined by state law as anyone under 19 — from attending drag shows, appeared to die after the legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against advancing it. The proposed legislation would have imposed misdemeanor charges, carrying a maximum penalty of up to a $1,000 fine and one year in jail, against anyone — including parents — who brings a child to a drag event.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans oppose laws that would impose restrictions on drag shows or performances in their state, while 39% support such legislation, according to a 2023 NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll.

Despite the varied opinions among Americans, these drag-related bills have emerged at a time when drag has become a form of mainstream entertainment and widely popular, said Michelson, the political scientist and LGBTQ+ politics expert. This differs from previous attacks on members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout history, who were targeted during a time when stigma was rampant, Michelson added.

“These bans aren’t going to be particularly successful or popular in the way that folks are maybe hoping they will be. It’s kind of too late,” Michelson said. “If they had gone [after] drag performers a decade ago, 15 years ago, it probably would have hit more successfully.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

"I wonder if your heart would break if I had shown up wearing a tie today?” House Democratic Whip Rachel Roberts, above, asked Republican Rep. Chris Fugate. (LRC Public Information)

A House committee on Tuesday advanced a Senate bill to regulate “sexually explicit” performances hosted in “adult-oriented businesses” which opponents have labeled as “anti drag.”?

Members of the House Veterans, Military Affairs & Public Protection Committee voted to approve the latest version of Senate Bill 147, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield.

The Senate passed the bill on March 6. Thursday is the 53rd day of the 60-day legislative session.?

The bill would keep businesses that “predominantly” host “sexually explicit” performances from locating within 933 feet — roughly a city block — of establishments? that cater to children, like schools. Violators could lose their ability to renew business or liquor licenses and could receive cease and desist letters. Local governments could also make the rules tighter.?

Tichenor said the bill in its current form no longer gives citizens the right to bring civil actions for violations. Instead, that power would go to the attorney general, commonwealth’s attorney and county attorneys.?

“The Commonwealth of Kentucky has long set regulations around several different industries in order to enact measures to protect its citizens,” Tichenor told committee members. “We regulate and monitor insurance, horse racing, financial advising, real estate, alcohol — the list is long. The intent of this bill is to set regulations around an unchecked industry to ensure we are protecting communities and minors within those communities from the exposure that may lead to adverse secondary effects.”??

Other changes to the bill included allowing businesses to be grandfathered into their current locations. Still, opponents called it a “mean” piece of legislation that targets LGBTQ+ Kentuckians.?

The debate?

Republican Bob Heleringer, a former member of the House from Louisville who spoke for the Fairness Campaign, told lawmakers that the bill is a “bad look” for the Kentucky legislature.?

“We’re the party of freedom; we’re the party of liberty; we’re the party of treating people as individuals,” he said. “We’re the party of business; we’re the party of getting government out of our lives, keeping it small and not intrusive. And this is the antithesis of that.”?

He called the bill a move to “codify discrimination” and? “codify bigotry.”?

“You get to be in a free country, you get to be prejudiced against gay people,” Heleringer said. “As an individual, you get to be prejudiced against Catholics, Jews, Mexicans, Black people, white people, straight people. You want to be prejudiced? We live in a free country and you can do that. When you write it in the law, that’s different. That’s wrong.”?

Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, said the bill, which he voted for, “is not about hating gay people at all.”?

“Freedom is not the ability to do what we want to do,” he said. “If that were true, then we would let people kill people who think they have the right to kill people.”?

Fugate also said a “young man” recently came into his church “dressed as a young lady” and “my heart breaks for him.”??

“Society has become a society that causes confusion,” Fugate said. “Somewhere along the line, somebody’s abused that young man, no doubt.”?

“Somebody has added to his confusion. These drag queen shows and all this garbage —” Fugate said, before switching gears to address someone shaking their head at him. “You can shake your head ‘no’ at me. You don’t intimidate me; you don’t scare me. The truth’s the truth.”??

House Democratic Whip Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, said Fugate’s words “sent me so back on my heels” with the example that his heart broke “for someone because they were dressed differently.”?

“I wonder if your heart would break if I had shown up wearing a tie today?” asked Roberts, who voted against the bill and called it mean. “I wonder if your heart breaks because I have short hair.”?

Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said she believes “the vulgarity that is in some of those parades” is from outside of Kentucky and not from the LGBTQ+ community in her constituency.?

“I have a real diverse district and I want to be sensitive,” said Dietz. She voted for the bill. “And I feel differently than some of my colleagues. I have a niece that is gay. I have people that live in my neighborhood that are gay.”?

She added: “I have a little bit different perspective of how I view that population. I don’t share the same sentiments that … someone’s sick or that we need to change them.” ?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mathew Mueller)

Kentucky’s Russell Coleman is among 16 state attorneys general threatening legal action if Maine enacts a law shielding its medical providers from penalties for providing reproductive and gender-affirming care to residents of other states.

The Republican attorneys general assert such a law would be “extraterritorial bullying” and “could also trigger a rapid tit-for-tat escalation that tears apart our Republic.”?

??The Maine legislature is debating a bill that would ensure out-of-state patients and Maine medical professionals aren’t penalized by other states’ laws against abortion and gender-affirming treatments.

“We will not allow laws like LD 227 to deter us from protecting the integrity of our States’ democratic processes. If Maine pursues LD 227’s constitutionally defective approach, we will vigorously avail ourselves of every recourse our Constitution provides,” says the letter dated March 11 on Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti’s letterhead.

It is addressed to Maine’s Gov. Janet T. Mills, Attorney General Aaron Frey, and the top leaders of Maine’s Senate and House.

On Tuesday, Frey, Maine’s attorney general, called the claims “meritless” and an attempt to intimidate proponents of the proposed shield law.

Frey cited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to subpoena records from a children’s hospital in Seattle, Washington, that Paxton alleged violated Texas law by providing gender affirming care to Texas youths.

“Unfortunately, shield laws have become necessary due to efforts in some objecting states to punish beyond their borders lawful behavior that occurs in Maine and other States,” Frey wrote.

He also dismissed the Republican AGs’ claim that LD 227 would be unconstitutional “because Maine will honor out-of-state judgments as long as they were issued in accord with basic requirements for due process and the court had sufficient jurisdiction.”?

Frey added, “Harmony between our states would be best preserved and promoted by the exercise of restraint by all parties seeking to control health care related policy choices in other states.”

If the bill becomes law, Maine would join other Democratic-led states that have enacted laws shielding providers and out-of-state patients from prosecution or other action by states that have enacted abortion bans and limits on transgender care.? “Shield laws” protect medical providers and in some cases, volunteers and patients, from legal or professional consequences from other states’ bans on certain types of health care. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 22 states and Washington, D.C. have passed shield laws protecting abortion and eleven of those states and D.C. also have protections specifically for gender-affirming care.

Kentucky has enforced? an almost-total ban on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Last year the legislature banned gender-affirming medical care for minors.?

Maine lawmakers are also considering additional reproductive rights bills. One proposal would enshrine the right to reproductive autonomy in the state Constitution while another would require insurance providers to cover over-the-counter contraceptives without passing along costs to customers.????

In Kentucky, bills to add exceptions for rape and incest to the state’s abortion ban have not been given a hearing by legislative leaders.

The Maine Morning Star contributed to this report.

Sen Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, speaks on a bill in the Kentucky Senate. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

FRANKFORT — A bill placing new restrictions on “adult-oriented” businesses, which opponents have blasted as “anti-drag,” passed the Kentucky Senate Wednesday 32-6.?

It can now go to the House for consideration.?

Senate Bill 147 prohibits “adult-oriented” businesses from being located within 933 feet of a child care facility, children’s amusement establishment, school, park, recreation? facility or place of worship. It defines “adult-oriented business as “an adult arcade, adult bookstore or video store, adult cabaret, adult theater, or any establishment that regularly hosts any performance involving sexual conduct.”?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, said on the floor that these businesses cause “the general erosion of communities.”?

“Adult-oriented businesses present a wide variety of adverse secondary effects, including an increase in crime, human trafficking, prostitution, lewdness, public indecency, vulgarity, weakening of public morality, obscenity, drug abuse and the trafficking negative impacts from surrounding properties and their values, sexual assault, human trafficking, exploitation” and more, she said.?

Originally the bill required businesses in violation to relocate when their lease expired or within five years of the bill becoming law. A floor amendment that passed removes that requirement. ?Businesses that violate the bill’s rules — including admitting or employing minors — could lose their ability to renew business or liquor licenses and could receive cease and desist letters.?

Another floor amendment removes the word “drag” from the definition of adult cabaret in this phrase: “any establishment that hosts sexually explicit drag performances or any performance involving sexual conduct.”?

“Most of us,” said Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, “want to make sure that sexually explicit content or activity is removed from minor children.”?

But Yates, who voted against the bill, worries “there may be a free speech issue there” and “constitutional violations” in the bill.?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A Senate committee on Thursday approved new restrictions on “adult-oriented businesses” that opponents describe as “this year’s anti-drag bill.”?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, filed Senate Bill 147 in late January, saying it was “not intended to impede on any First Amendment rights of free speech, nor to impose limitations on reasonable access to the intended adult market.”?

The bill mandates certain “adult-oriented” performances cannot be closer than 933 feet, about a city block, to facilities that cater to minors like schools and child care providers. Businesses that violate the rules could lose their ability to renew business or liquor licenses and could receive cease and desist letters.?

Performance is “harmful to minors,” according to the bill, when it “taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of minors.”?

Tichenor filed similar legislation in 2023 that stalled after it passed in the Senate.?

The latest version would:?

• Clarify that an “adult-oriented” business is a business that “regularly hosts any performance involving sexual conduct.”?
• Clarify that the restriction applies to “drag performance with explicitly sexual content.”?
• Remove colleges and universities from the list of protected educational facilities.?

Richard Nelson, the executive director of the Commonwealth Policy Center, told lawmakers “the bottom line with this is that this proposal seeks to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”?

David Walls with The Family Foundation said the regulations proposed protect against the “numerous adverse effects of adult-oriented businesses.”

“It would simply provide reasonable protections for children from exposure and harm from adult businesses,” he said.?

The opposition?

Drag performer Poly Tics testified against the bill, saying the “resources, time and money would be better spent ensuring every child in Kentucky has access to affordable health care, well funded education and clean water and nutritional food.”??

“I’m sure that every person in this room would agree that we have a specific need to address the health, safety and well being of children,” Poly Tics said. “With that being said, targeting drag performances is by far one of the least impactful pieces of legislation that could be proposed to meet those needs.”?

And, she said, the “numerous gray areas” in the bill could leave her and others open to legal and other attacks.?

Andrew Schaftlein, who performs drag under the name May O’Nays, also spoke against the bill.?

“I’m not … just the drag queen,” Schaftlein said. “I’m a parent. I have three-year-old twins. This bill has been written allegedly to protect children. Of all the threats of children, of which there are many, drag, I don’t believe is one of them.”?

Michael Frazier with Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky said there are some “constitutional vagueness” issues with the legislation.?

The bill’s permission for local governments to create more stringent policies about these adult-oriented performances, Frazier said, places “undue burden upon the free speech rights of the drag queen performers.”??

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.”?

Democrat Reps. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, (left) and Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville, file HB 376 to overthrow Kentucky's ban on gender affirming medical care for transgender minors. (Photo provided)

FRANKORT — Two Kentucky Democrats filed a bill Thursday seeking to undo a law that bans gender affirming medical care for transgender minors.?

Senate Bill 150 passed the general assembly in 2023. Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill, but the Republican supermajority overruled his veto, and the bill became law.?

As a result, Kentucky now bans treatments like hormones for transgender minors. It also bans surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on transgender children.?

Neither the American Civil Liberties Union nor Kentucky LGBTQ+ organizations have taken issue with the surgery ban, but have fought other parts of the law in court.?

After a series of rulings that left Kentucky’s ability to enforce the law up in the air, the ACLU filed a petition for a certiorari in November asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court’s decision allowing enforcement.?

“No child should have to advocate for not only their basic rights but their very identity,” one of the Thursday sponsors, Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville, said in a statement. “Furthermore, a law that strips children’s healthcare decisions from parents, trusted family doctors, and mental health professionals represents a gross overreach from state government.”

Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, joined Stalker in the filing of House Bill 376, which proposes striking much of the language in SB150. HB376 would also allow students to use locker and shower rooms that align with their gender identity, striking language that restricted those facilities to those with a singular biological sex.?

“Our singular goal is to eliminate laws that perpetuate harm and hinder the progress of citizens based on their identity and relationships,” Camuel said in a statement. “We are dedicated and unified in an effort to promote equality and justice for everyone.”

A Ketron-Newell family portrait from 2019. Pictured, left to right, Elizabeth Newell, Gwenn Ketron, Natalie Newell, Raelinn Ketron, Rachelle Ketron, Marsha Newell, Patrick Newell, Meryl Ketron, Joseph Newell and Finley Ketron.

OWENTON — During a school-wide club fair in this northern Kentucky town, a school administrator stood watch as students signed up for a group for LGBTQ+ students and their allies.

After the club sign-up sheet had been posted, students wrote derogatory terms and mockingly signed up classmates, according to one of the club’s founders. The group eventually went to the administrator, who agreed to help.

Simply being able to post the sign-up sheet in school was a victory of sorts. For two years, the club, known as PRISM (People Respecting Individuality and Sexuality Meeting), gathered in the town’s public library, because its dozen members couldn’t find a faculty adviser to sponsor it. In fall 2022, after two teachers finally signed on, the group received permission to start the club on campus.

Much of that happened because of one parent, Rachelle Ketron. Ketron’s daughter Meryl Ketron, who was trans and an outspoken member of the LGBTQ+ community in her small town, had talked about wanting to start a Gay-Straight Alliance when she got to high school. But in April 2020, during her freshman year, Meryl died by suicide after facing years of harassment over her identity.??

Following Meryl’s death, Ketron decided to continue her daughter’s advocacy. She gathered Meryl’s friends and talked about what it might mean to start a Gay-Straight Alliance, a student-run group that could serve as a safe space for queer youth on campus. After trying, and failing, to get the school to sign off on the idea, the group decided to gather monthly at the public library, where its members discussed mental health, sex education and experiences of being queer in rural areas. Ketron, a coordinator of development at a community mental health center just across the border in Indiana, also founded doit4Meryl, a nonprofit that advocates for mental health education and suicide prevention, specifically for LGBTQ+ youth in rural communities like hers.

Around the country, LGBTQ+ students and the campus groups founded to support them have become a growing target in the culture wars. In 2023 alone, 542 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced by state legislatures or in Congress, according to an LGBTQ-legislation tracker, with many of them focused on young people. Supporters of the bills say schools inappropriately expose students to discussions about gender identity and sexuality, and parents deserve greater control over what their kids are taught. Critics say the laws are endangering already vulnerable students.?

Kentucky’s law, passed in March, is one of the nation’s most sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ laws, prohibiting school districts from compelling teachers to address trans students by their pronouns and banning transgender students from using school bathrooms or changing rooms that match their gender identity. The law also limits instruction on and discussion of human sexuality and gender identity in schools.?A separate section of the law bans gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth in the state.

“What started out as really a bill focused on pronouns and bathroom use morphed into this very broad anti-LGBTQIA+ piece of legislation that outlawed discussions of gender and sexuality, through all grades, and all subject matters,” said Jason Glass, the former Kentucky commissioner of education.

Glass left Kentucky in September to take a job in higher education in Michigan after his support for LGBTQ+ students drew fire from Republican politicians in Kentucky, including some who called for his ouster.

Because the law’s language is sometimes ambiguous, it’s up to individual districts to interpret it, Glass said. Some have adopted more restrictive policies that advocates say risk forcing GSAs, also known as Gender and Sexuality Alliances or Gay-Straight Alliances, to change their names or shut down, and led to book bans and the cancellation of lessons over concerns that they discuss gender or sexuality. Others have interpreted the law more liberally and continue to offer services and accommodations to transgender or nonbinary students, if parents approve.

Across the country, the number of GS

As is at a 20-year low, according to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ education advocacy nonprofit. GLSEN researchers say there may be two somewhat contradictory forces at work. Fewer students may feel the need for such clubs, thanks to school curricula and textbooks that have become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals and thanks to an increase in the number of school policies that explicitly prohibit anti-gay bullying. Conversely, the recent surge in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, as well as the halt to extracurricular activities during the pandemic, may also be fueling the drop, the researchers said.?

Willie Carver, a former high school teacher and Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year in 2022, left teaching this year because of threats he faced as an openly gay man. Laws like the one in Kentucky legitimize and legalize harassment against LGBTQ+ kids, he said, and may even encourage it. “We’ve ripped all of the school support away from the students, so they’re consistently miserable and hopeless,” he said.

Coming out in fifth grade

Owenton is a picturesque farming community with rolling green hills and winding roads located halfway between Cincinnati and Louisville. Its population of about 1,682 is predominantly white and politically conservative: The surrounding county has voted overwhelmingly Republican in every presidential election since 2000.

Ketron moved here from Cincinnati in 2014 with her then-husband, seeking to live on a farm within driving distance of large cities. Shortly after the move, she recalled, a city official visited the property to give Ketron a rundown of expectations in the community — and a warning.?

“It was basically ‘You better watch what you do and don’t get on the bad side of people because one person might be the only person that does that job in this whole county.’ Do you understand what I mean?’ ‘Yup,’” Ketron recalled saying, “‘I understand what you mean.’”

A few years later, she met her now-wife, Marsha Newell, and the two began raising their blended family of eight children on the farm. They also started fostering LGBTQ+ kids. Ketron said her family is one the few in the county to accept queer kids. Their children were often met with hostility, Ketron said; other students made fun of them for having two moms and told them that Ketron and her wife were sinners who were “going to hell.”?

Ketron said the couple thought about moving, but beyond the financial and logistical obstacles, she worried about abandoning LGBTQ+ young people in the town. “Just because I’m uncomfortable or this is a foreign place for a queer kid to be doesn’t mean there aren’t queer kids born here every day,” she said.

After Meryl came out to family and friends in fifth grade, the bullying at school intensified, Ketron and Gwenn, Meryl’s younger sister, recalled. Few adults in Meryl’s schools took action to stop it, they said. When Meryl complained, school staff didn’t take her seriously and told her to “toughen up and move on,” Ketron said. (In an email, the high school’s new principal, Renee Boots, wrote that administrators did not receive reports of bullying from Meryl. Ketron said by the time Meryl reached high school, she’d given up on reporting such incidents.)?

That said, as she got older, Meryl became more outspoken. As a ninth grader, in 2019, she clashed with students who wanted to fly the Confederate flag at school; Meryl and her friends wanted to fly a rainbow flag. The school decided to ban both flags, Ketron said. After that, Meryl brought small rainbow flags and placed them around campus. (According to Boots, students were wearing various flags as “capes” and were advised not to do so as it was against school dress code.)??

Ketron said she generally supported her daughter’s advocacy, but sometimes wished she’d take a less combative approach. “You might need to dial it back a little bit,” Ketron recalled telling Meryl once, when her daughter was in eighth grade.?

Ketron recalled seeing Meryl’s disappointment; she said it was the only time she felt that she let her daughter down.

Clubs provide a sense of belonging

For years, the most effective wedge issue between conservatives and progressives was marriage equality. But when the Supreme Court in 2015 recognized the legal right of same-sex couples to marry, opponents of gay rights pivoted to focus on trans individuals, particularly trans youth. After early success with legislation banning trans kids from playing sports, conservative legislators began to expand their efforts to other school policies pertaining to LGBTQ+ youth.

The ripple effects of these laws on young people are becoming more apparent, said Michael Rady, senior education programs manager for GLSEN. Forty-one percent of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 survey by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit. Nearly 2 in 3 LGBTQ+ youth said that learning about potential legislation banning discussions of LGBTQ+ people in schools negatively affected their mental health.

Konrad Bresin, an assistant professor in the department of psychology and brain sciences at the University of Louisville whose research focuses on LGBTQ+ mental health, said that for LGBTQ+ individuals just seeing advertising that promotes legislation against them has negative effects. “Even if something doesn’t pass, but there’s a big public debate about it, that is kind of increasing the day-to-day stress that people are experiencing,” he said.

Bresin said that student participation in GSAs can help blunt the effect of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, since the clubs provide students a sense of belonging.?

Supporters of Kentucky’s new law argue that the legislation creates necessary guardrails to protect students. Martin Cothran, spokesperson for The Family Foundation, the Kentucky-based conservative policy organization that advocated for the legislation, said the law is designed to keep students from being exposed to “gender ideology.”

Cothran said that nothing in the law impedes student speech, nor does it entirely prohibit traditional sex education. “It just says that you can’t indoctrinate,” he said. “Schools are for learning, not indoctrination.”

When the law, known as SB 150, went into effect last spring, Glass, the former education commissioner, said school districts were forced to scramble to update their curricula to comply with the bill’s restrictions. In some cases, that meant removing any information on sexuality or sexual maturation from elementary school health curricula, and also revising health, psychology and certain A.P. courses in middle school and high school, he said.?

Some families have sued. In September, four Lexington families with trans or nonbinary kids filed a lawsuit against the Fayette County Board of Education and the state’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, alleging that SB 150’s education provisions violate students’ educational, privacy and free speech rights under state and federal law. The families say that since the law passed, their kids have been intentionally misgendered or outed, barred access to bathrooms that match their gender identity and had their privacy disregarded when school staff accessed their birth certificates in order to enforce the law’s provisions.?

School districts that don’t comply fully with the law could face discipline from the state’s attorney general, said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

Teachers from across the state have also shared stories about their schools removing pride flags and safe space stickers, banning educators from using trans students’ pronouns and names, and removing access to bathrooms for trans kids, according to Carver, the former Teacher of the Year, who is collecting that information as part of his work with the nonprofit Campaign for our Shared Future. Boyle County Schools Superintendent Mark Wade cited SB 150 as the reason for removing more than 100 books from the district’s school libraries.

Educators and school staff are fearful, said Carver. “It’s nearly impossible to know what’s happening because the law gets to be interpreted at the local level. So, the district itself gets to decide what the law’s interpretation will look like,” he said. “And teachers who before this were willing to speak out and advocate are, as a general rule, unwilling to speak publicly about what’s happening.”?

For supporters of the law, that may be the point. GLSEN’s Rady said the bills are often written in intentionally vague ways to intimidate educators and school district leaders into removing any content that might land them in trouble. This year, his group is focused on providing educators, students and families information about their rights to free speech and expression in schools, including their right to run GSAs, Rady said.?

‘Suicide is never one thing’

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit and schools went remote, Meryl, then a high school freshman, posted a video diary on social media. In it, she strums her ukulele, and shares a message to her friends. “Some of you guys don’t have social media, some of you guys don’t like being at home,” Meryl said in the video. “I won’t get to see you guys for a whole month which is awful because you guys make me have a 10 times better life, you guys make mountains feel like literally bumps and steep cliffs just feel like a little bit of walking down the stairs.”

The video ends with her saying she’ll see her peers in school on April 30, when schools were scheduled to reopen. On the morning of April 18, Meryl died.

Ketron, Meryl’s mother, had thought remote school would be a relief for her daughter after years of bullying in school buildings. But it was difficult to be separated from her friends, she said, and Meryl also knew some of them were struggling in homes where they did not feel accepted.

“Suicide is never one thing,” Ketron said. “A lot of times people talk about death by a thousand paper cuts. As sad as it sounds, for me to have that come out of my mouth, I feel like that really speaks to Meryl’s life. She had wonderful things, but it was just like thousands of paper cuts.”

For months after Meryl’s death, Ketron would read text messages on Meryl’s phone from her friends sharing stories about how she’d stood up for them in school and in the community. Ketron said she made a promise to herself — and to Meryl — that she was going to be loud like her daughter and “make it better.” In the spring of 2020, she started doit4Meryl.

“I don’t ever want this to happen again, ever, to anyone,” she said. “I never want someone to be in that place and pieces of it that got them there was hate and ignorance from another human being.”

In 2021, the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-critical race theory book bans movement reached the Owenton community after a teacher in the district taught “The 57 Bus,” a nonfiction book that features a vocabulary guide explaining gender identities and characters who are LGBTQ+.

The book created an uproar in the town, with parents calling for its removal and for the educator to be disciplined. After that, Ketron said the few teachers who had seemed open to sponsoring the GSA no longer felt comfortable.

In mid-2021, Ketron decided to start the club herself, at the public library. Each month, a dozen or so kids gathered in one of the building’s study rooms, talking about what it means to be queer in rural Kentucky, and what they hoped to accomplish through their GSA. Some of them were Meryl’s friends, others were new to Ketron.?

In July 2022, the group held a Color Run, a 5K to bring together various advocacy groups from around the county and state to uplift people after the isolation of Covid. Later that year, they invited Carver to speak about his experiences as an openly gay man growing up in rural Kentucky. The students worked with Ketron and doit4Meryl to create a “Be Kind” campaign: They printed signs with phrases like “You’re never alone” and “Don’t give up,” along with information on mental health resources, and placed them in yards around town.?

In the fall of 2022, after a teacher agreed to serve as an advisor for the GSA, the school principal allowed the club on campus. While Ketron checks in with the students occasionally, the club is now student-led, she said. The past school year would have been Meryl’s senior year, and the club’s students were excited about finally being welcomed onto campus, Ketron said.?

Tragedy strikes again

Then Kentucky’s 2023 legislative session began with an onslaught of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ youth that eventually merged to become SB 150.?

Around the same time, tragedy entered Ketron’s life again: She lost one of her foster children, who was trans, to suicide. The loss of her daughters prompted her to spend countless hours in the state Capitol, attending committee meetings and hearings and signing up to testify against the anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills on the senate floor. She watched, devastated, as legislators quickly voted on and passed SB 150.?

“All I could think about was Meryl,” she said. “They’re just starting and this world is supposed to love them through this hard part. When you’re shaping yourself and instead we’re going to tell you that we don’t want you to exist.”

In Owenton, the district follows SB 150 as per law, said Reggie Taylor, superintendent of Owen County Schools. Little has changed as a result of the legislation, he said: “It’s been business as usual.” Trans and nonbinary students have long had a separate bathroom they could use and that hasn’t changed, he said, and the district offers a tip line for students to anonymously report bullying, as well as access to school counselors.?

Ketron, though, sees fallout. Fearful of bullying and other harms, she said that she and the other parents with trans kids in the school system are trying to get their children support by applying for help through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. While 504 plans are typically for students with disabilities, they are sometimes used to help secure LGBTQ+ students services and accommodations, such as protection from bullying, mental health counseling and access to bathrooms that match their gender identity.?

SB 150 has also had a chilling effect on the work of the school’s GSA, according to Ketron. During the summer, after the law went into effect, PRISM members discussed changing the club’s name and direction to focus on mental health.?

Across the state, students and educators are grappling with what their schools will look like as the law takes hold. In March, Anna, a trans nonbinary student from Lexington, launched an Instagram account called TransKY Storytelling Project, anonymously documenting the impact of the new law on young people and teachers.

People shared examples of the ways the legislation affects them, such as making them afraid to go to school, erasing their identities and making the jobs of educators and librarians tougher. A middle school guidance counselor in rural Kentucky wrote that the new law makes it harder to connect with students and support them: “If we are the only ones students have, and we can’t provide them the care they desperately need and deserve, the future looks very bleak.”

Even in the state’s more progressive cities, the law has changed daily life in schools, Anna, the Instagram account’s curator said. The GSA at Anna’s Lexington high school used to announce club meetings and events on the loudspeakers and post flyers in school hallways, Anna said. But the group has since gone underground, to avoid bringing attention to its existence lest administrators force it to stop meeting.?

“The school felt so much safer knowing that [a GSA] existed because there were students like you elsewhere. You could go in and say, ‘Hey, I’m trying out this set of pronouns. I’m trying to learn more about myself. Can you all like call me this for a couple of weeks?’” Anna said. “It just allowed for a place where students like me could go.”

But while the absence of a GSA is concerning, Anna fears most the impact of SB 150 on students in rural parts of Kentucky. GSA members from rural communities have shared that they no longer have supportive school staff to advocate for their clubs because of the climate of fear created by the law, they said.?

That said, November’s election brought some hope for LGBTQ+ advocates: Cameron, the state attorney general who backed SB 150 and campaigned on anti-trans policies, lost his bid for the governorship to incumbent Andy Beshear, and several other candidates for office who advocated anti-trans policies were defeated too.

Back in Owenton, Ketron is working with Carver to plan a summit for Kentucky’s rural, queer youth. Ketron said she hopes the gathering will serve as a reminder for students that even though they may be isolated in their communities, there are people like them across the state.?

But as of this fall, participating in a GSA is no longer an option for students at the Owenton high school. Boots, the school principal, wrote in an email that the club had changed its focus, to one geared toward addressing “social needs across a variety of settings.”?

But according to Ketron, students said they were afraid to continue a club focused on LGBTQ+ issues in part because of SB 150. She offered to help students restart the club in the library, or at her house, she said, but members worried that would be too difficult because many of them have not come out to their families.?

Ketron said she’s not giving up. “At its core,” she said, a GSA is “a protective factor and so very needed, especially in a rural community.”

This story about?LGBTQ+ students in schools?was produced by?The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the?Hechinger newsletter.

Daniel Cameron looks over the crowd after conceding in his challenge to Beshear (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a coalition of 17 state attorneys general — including Kentucky’s outgoing AG Daniel Cameron — in fighting a proposed federal rule intended to give LGBTQ kids greater protections in foster care.

The proposed rule reflects misguided federal policy, illegally intrudes on state authority and risks violating the free speech and religion rights of foster parents and organizations that provide care to kids in state custody, a letter sent Monday to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services from Skrmetti and 16 of his counterparts in other states said.

“It also hampers the ability of the states to protect kids by forcing children’s services agencies to police pronoun usage with the same urgency they address physical abuse,” Skrmetti said in a statement released Wednesday.

Announced in September by the Biden Administration, the proposed new rule would require state child welfare agencies to ensure LGBTQ+ kids in state custody are “protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive.”

The proposed “placement rule” would require child welfare agencies like the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to place kids in foster homes, residential treatment centers or group homes that are “free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status.”

LGBTQ kids are disproportionately represented in foster care across the nation, with some studies suggesting that up to a third of all foster youth identify as LBGTQ — often winding up in state custody as result of mistreatment or rejection based on their gender identity, according to DHHS.

The proposed “placement rule” would require child welfare agencies like the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to place kids in foster homes, residential treatment centers or group homes that are “free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status” and with caregivers who have the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of a child related to the child’s sexual orientation.

“For example, to be considered a safe and appropriate placement, a provider is expected to utilize the child’s identified pronouns, chosen name, and allow the child to dress in an age-appropriate manner that the child believes reflects their self-identified gender identity and expression,” the rules say.

It would also require caregivers to provide access to “clinically appropriate mental and behavioral health care supportive of their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as needed.”

That requirement is “particularly problematic,” the letter from attorneys general said.

Kentucky and Tennessee have enacted laws, currently under challenge in federal court, that prohibit a variety of gender-affirming medical care for minors. The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals refused to block the laws.

“The Placement Rule nonetheless appears to condition … Tennessee’s continued funding on foster parents’ providing certain gender-affirming treatments that it and other States have permissibly banned. Or perhaps HHS would require foster parents to take children on costly out-of-state trips for medical visits and surgeries to avoid designation as “unsafe” foster providers,” the letter said.

The attorneys general also expressed concern the new rules, potentially holding foster parents and state agencies legally liable for failing to follow them, and required new training, could deter people from becoming foster parents, or prompt existing foster parents to leave, adding to an already acute shortage in foster homes. Ultimately, that would harm kids not help them, the letter said.

Cameron, a Republican will hand over the office in January to fellow Republican Russell Coleman after losing his challenge of Gov. Andy Beshear in this year’s election.

This story is republished from Tennessee Lookout,?a sister publication of Kentucky Lantern and part of?States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and donors as a 501c(3) public charity.?

Outside the U.S. Supreme Court, the Guardian or Authority of Law, created by sculptor James Earle Fraser.(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

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.?

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday filed a petition for a certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court’s decision allowing Kentucky to enforce its? ban on gender affirming medical care for transgender minors.?

The ACLU filed on behalf of seven transgender children and families alongside the National Center for Lesbian Rights.?

The filing came two days after the ACLU announced its next legal move in a case challenging Kentucky law Senate Bill 150.?

The children and their parents won a favorable ruling at the district court level in June only to have it reversed by a divided 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.?

The ACLU of Kentucky is appealing to the higher court alongside Tennessee, where a similar case is ongoing. Tennessee’s case has provided precedent for Kentucky’s over the past months. The two want to be “the first challenge to transgender healthcare restrictions before the Supreme Court,” ACLU said in a Wednesday statement.?

Kentucky’s ban on treatments like hormones is part of Senate Bill 150, which also bans surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on transgender children.?

Neither the ACLU nor Kentucky LGBTQ+ organizations have taken issue with that part of the law, though.?

What does the petition ask of SCOTUS??

The ACLU’s petition asks the Supreme Court to consider whether SB150 “burdens parents’ right to direct the medical treatment of their children.”?

It also asks the court to consider if the law “classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status,” which is an argument lawyers made before an appeals court, saying that basing any treatment access on the basis of sex is inherently discriminatory.?

That panel of judges ultimately sided against that argument.?

“Even if a transgender adolescent, their parents, and their doctor all agree that the treatment is vital to the adolescent’s health and well-being, and even if the treatment represents the accepted standard of care among medical authorities, the Treatment Ban makes it illegal,” lawyers wrote in their petition.?

Lawyers also assert that the ban will have a negative mental health effect on LGBTQ+ youth.?

“This extraordinary law puts young people in Kentucky at well-documented risks of depression, anxiety, and in some cases, suicidality,” ACLU lawyers assert. “It usurps parents’ traditional authority over important decisions regarding their children’s health. It singles out transgender minors, a historically powerless, misunderstood, and vulnerable group.”?

Politicians in support of the ban have regularly made the argument that hormone therapy is experimental and irreversible.?

“Contrary to the Sixth Circuit’s reasoning, petitioners are not asserting a fundamental right to experimental drugs — which, as the district court’s findings confirm, are not at issue here,” the petition states. “Petitioners seek treatments for their children that, for decades, have been recognized as safe and effective by medical specialists and the nation’s leading medical and mental health organizations.”?

Finally, lawyers argue the lawmakers who passed SB150 did so from a place of personal bias.?

“Kentucky’s elected lawmakers simply oppose these treatments,” they wrote, “based on their own views about how gender-nonconforming minors should lead their lives.”?

According to United States Courts, the Supreme Court is asked to review thousands of cases annually through writs of certiorari, but only decides to take up fewer than 200.?

“The Court usually is not under any obligation to hear these cases, and it usually only does so if the case could have national significance, might harmonize conflicting decisions in the federal Circuit courts, and/or could have precedential value,” uscourts.gov says.?

In Kentucky’s petition, lawyers argue there is national precedent potential. In 2023, lawmakers around the country introduced more than 500 bills that the ACLU classified as “anti-LGBTQ.”?

Petition by seven Kentucky minors and their parents to U.S. Supreme Court

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

Kentucky’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the 2023 law banning certain gender affirming medical care for transgender minors.?

This comes more than a month after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to keep Kentucky’s ban on treatments like hormones for trans minors in place.?

The ACLU of Kentucky says it will file the petition Thursday or Friday. It is filing on behalf of seven transgender children and families alongside the National Center for Lesbian Rights.?

Tennessee is also filing, ACLU said, and the two wish to be “the first challenge to transgender healthcare restrictions before the Supreme Court.”

Kentucky’s ban is part of Senate Bill 150, which also bans surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on transgender children. Neither the ACLU nor Kentucky LGBTQ+ organizations have taken issue with that part of the law.??

Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, called the ban “extreme political interference in the doctor-patient relationship” in a statement.?

“We are asking the Supreme Court to reverse the Sixth Circuit’s decision so that our clients can continue receiving the necessary, effective health care recommended by their physicians and supported by their parents,” Shapiro said. “It’s time to stop criminalizing health care, interfering with personal decisions, and substituting political agendas for the expertise of health care professionals.”?

Speaking to reporters in Glasgow Wednesday, Attorney General Daniel Cameron once again expressed his support for the ban and intention to counter any challenges to it.

He will continue “protecting the innocence of youth,” he said, ?“and I look forward to continuing to defend that law.”

McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.?

This story may update.?

Protesters chant "shame, shame, shame" after a Kentucky legislative committee advanced anti-trans legislation, March 2, 2023, in the Kentucky Capitol Annex. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

A class action lawsuit against Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the Fayette County Board of Education argues that students’ constitutional and privacy rights are violated by a new anti-trans Kentucky law and asks the court to block its enforcement in Lexington schools.?

Senate Bill 150, enacted by the legislature earlier this year over Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto, requires local school boards to implement policies keeping youngsters from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that “are reserved for students of a different biological sex.” The law also places new restrictions on sex education in public schools.

The Friday suit argues that the law deprives LGBTQ+ students of an education experience that is equal to that of their peers.?

“Parents and children in Kentucky have a fundamental, constitutionally based right to receive a public education,” says the lawsuit filed on behalf of the anonymous parents of four children. “By virtue of this fundamental, constitutional right, the General Assembly, and the Defendants, possess? no? power? or? authority? to establish or? enforce arbitrary, discriminatory,? and privacy-invasive conditions that restrict or burden the right of every child to receive…an appropriate and quality public education.”?

Who are the plaintiffs??

In addition to seeking class status, the Fayette County plaintiffs ?are asking the court to allow them to remain unidentified to avoid stigmatization, discrimination and harassment, saying the age of the students — all younger than 18 — makes them especially vulnerable.

One of the plaintiffs, a nonbinary student, 10, has “(come) home from school in tears and in severe distress”because of a classmate’s “intentional disrespect and abusive ‘misgendering,’” the suit says. This student’s “educational success has been adversely impacted” as well, court documents say.?

A Fayette schools employee also has misgendered the student, the suit alleges.?

Another family alleges that their transgender daughter, 10, was denied access to the girl’s restroom in August during a school break “when all children were permitted to? use? the restroom.” That’s even though the student used the girl’s restroom “without incident” for three years.?

“School? personnel instructed? (this child) to use another ‘special’ restroom located on the other side of the school and nowhere near her classroom where her female friends used the restroom during restroom breaks,” the suit says. “The location of this other restroom…consumed far more time away from class for her than if she had simply been allowed to use the girls’ restroom as she had always been allowed to do in previous years without incident.”?

This student told her parents she was “so humiliated and embarrassed by being segregated” from friends that she “will not use the restroom at school at all and will instead ‘hold it’ until she gets home.”?

The parents of a 17-year-old transgender boy alleges he is now not using the bathroom at school after three years of being able to use the male restroom. If he were to use the girl’s restroom, the suit says, it would be uncomfortable for girls because “female students know him as a male.”?

This student “feels? his? educational? opportunities and? success are disrupted when others intentionally refuse not to recognize or treat him in accord with his transgender identity as male.”?

The suit asks for expedited review. The plaintiffs also seek a “restraining? order, temporary? injunction,? and/or permanent injunction” to “(prohibit) any further discrimination within the Fayette County public schools on the basis of sex.”?

District schools spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith said in a statement that “there are many questions surrounding the implementation of Senate Bill 150.” But, she said, the school system “is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all students, working in partnership with families, and following the requirements of state law.”

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

Nearly a month after hearing oral arguments on Kentucky’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, a federal three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday to keep the ban in place.

This means Kentucky minors who seek treatment like hormones will not be able to access that care.?

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which argued the case for seven Kentucky minors and their parents alongside the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is “disappointed” in the ruling, legal director Corey Shapiro said in a statement.?

“This is only a temporary setback,” Shapiro said. “We will continue fighting to restore that care permanently in the commonwealth.”

The appeals court’s 2-1 order also upheld a similar law in Tennessee.

In the majority opinion, Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton wrote: “No one in these consolidated cases debates the existence of gender dysphoria or the distress caused by it.”?

“And no one doubts,” he continued, “the value of providing psychological and related care to children facing it. The question is whether certain additional treatments — puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries — should be added to the mix of treatments available to those age 17 and under.”?

In her dissenting opinion, Judge Helene White said that “the statutes we consider today discriminate based on sex and gender conformity and intrude on the well-established province of parents to make medical decisions for their minor children.”?

When they argued before the panel, the ACLU made this case as well – that the part of SB150 in question discriminates on the basis of sex because the biological sex would need to be known for transgender minors to be denied care.?

A spokesperson told the Lantern that the ACLU will review the judges’ opinion and look at potential next legal steps. It’s not clear yet, the spokesperson said, if this case will go to the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs could also seek a hearing before all the judges of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.?

The ban is part of Senate Bill 150, which also bans surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on transgender minors. Neither the ACLU nor Kentucky LGBTQ+ organizations have taken issue with that part of the law.??

SB 150 became law earlier this year over Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. Cameron is the Republican nominee challenging Beshear for the governorship in the Nov. 7 election. The Cameron campaign issued a statement saying: “Andy Beshear has refused to stand up to protect our kids from these experimental and life-altering surgeries and drugs,” Daniel Cameron said. “I have empathy for these children and the families facing these incredibly difficult discussions. However, I do not think that the solution for these kids is moving to the most extreme option of life-altering drugs and surgery during their formative years. I will always protect our kids, defend our laws, and stand up for our Kentucky values.”

Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky wrote in a social media statement that “the current courts — both the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court — are not going to protect LGBT rights on a 14th Amendment basis.”?

“Times have changed,” Ban Conversion Therapy said. “We need to be developing new legal theories for jurisprudence that meets the moment, not chasing after the past.”?

This story may be updated.?

A crowd protesting anti-transgender legislation staged a "die in" on the Kentucky Capitol grounds on March 29, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

A Democratic candidate for State Representative apologized Thursday for a comment she made that caused transgender Kentuckians to condemn her words.?

“As a longtime supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, I stand firmly in support of the rights of all LGBTQ+ Kentuckians, including transgender Kentuckians,” Adrielle Camuel said in a statement shared to social media Thursday. “I commit to you that I will always oppose any discriminatory legislation.”

She also said she would work to repeal Senate Bill 150 if elected.?

Senate Bill 150, which became enforceable in July, outlawed gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 18 in Kentucky.?

Camuel is running for District 93 to fill a vacancy left by the late Rep. Lamin Swann, who died at age 45 on Mother’s Day after being hospitalized for days with what family said was a significant medical emergency.?

Camuel’s ‘extremes’ statement

During an interview on WKYT in early August, reporter?Bill Bryant asked Camuel about transgender rights and the new law.?

Camuel responded that there are “extremes on both sides” and that “we really need to get to the meat of issues, whether it’s clean drinking water, funding education, access to mental health services.”?

After the “extreme” comment, trans leaders called on the candidate to clarify her stance on the law and transgender rights.?

Emma Curtis, who ran for Swann’s seat but wasn’t nominated for candidacy, rescinded her endorsement of Camuel in early September. She condemned the “genuine hostility towards people like me.”?

A group of 12 transgender Kentucky leaders, including Curtis, also signed a letter on Sept. 7 saying they “fully condemn” Camuel’s “false equivocations” about SB150. That letter also stated that “she must fully reverse course or risk further damaging the reputation of the” party. ?

Camuel apologized “for not being clear enough recently in my support for a community that has already experienced so much pain.”?

“I want the LGBTQ+ community – and anyone whose voice has been shut out – to know that they will have an ally in Frankfort if I am elected,” Camuel wrote. “My remarks about ‘extremes on both sides’ were meant to refer to our polarized politics in general. I want to be clear: I was not referring to SB 150 or its opponents. I’m sorry for any confusion and hurt my words caused.”?

Several people thanked Camuel for her statement, including Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first openly transgeneder elected official, who wrote on Twitter that “Healing is a long way away, but this is a good start, and we are grateful.”?

Camuel is running against Republican Kyle Whalen.

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

Kentucky’s ban on transgender medical care for minors will remain in force under a ruling issued Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

The decision is a setback for seven anonymous Kentucky minors and their parents who had asked the appeals court to reinstate a preliminary injunction that briefly stopped enforcement of the ban. U.S. District Judge David Hale had issued the preliminary injunction in June.

Hale later stayed his own injunction based on the appeals court’s decision allowing enforcement of a similar law in Tennessee.

On Tuesday, Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton and Judge Amul Thapar denied a motion requested by the ACLU of Kentucky to lift Hale’s stay of his own injunction.?

The two judges ruled that the issues with Kentucky’s law are the same as in the case in which the court allowed the Tennessee law to be enforced.

Judge Helene N. White dissented, writing that unlike Tennessee’s law, the law in Kentucky “provides no grace period during which patients receiving care may continue treatment.”?

Lawyers for the Kentucky minors had asked that they be allowed to continue receiving puberty blockers and hormones while the case is argued on its merits. (The plaintiffs are not challenging the Kentucky law’s ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors.)

The Tennessee law allows gender-affirming care “without alteration” through March 31, 2024, White wrote, while Kentucky’s law requires health care providers to immediately cease treatment or to begin systematically reducing use of the drug or hormone. Violations could cost providers their licenses.?

“It seems obvious that there is a tremendous difference between a statute like Tennessee’s that allows flexibility regarding treatment decisions and time to explore alternatives and one like Kentucky’s that forces doctors to either discontinue treatment immediately or risk losing their license if a stranger to the doctor-patient relationship second-guesses the doctor’s determination or documentation that interrupting treatment would harm the minor,” White wrote in her dissent.

The three-judge panel heard arguments on the motion Sept. 1.

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.?

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

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.?

A three-judge federal panel on Friday heard opposing arguments over Kentucky’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, after first hearing arguments?in a similar case in Tennessee.

Stephanie Schuster presented arguments for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which are suing on behalf of seven anonymous transgender minors and their parents seeking to restore access to hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender minors in Kentucky.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office is fighting to keep the ban in place in line with Senate Bill 150, which the Republican-controlled legislature enacted earlier this year over Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. Solicitor General Matthew Kuhn argued for the AG.?

Schuster argued that SB150 is inherently discrimination on the basis of sex because a patient’s biological sex – what was assigned at birth – would need to be known for treatment to be legal or illegal.?

Kuhn, on the other hand, said that this law deals with “regulating the practice of medicine” and is not sex-based discrimination.?

“What Kentucky has done,” he said, “(it) has chosen a particular condition and has chosen particular treatments for that condition and restricted that. That is not a a sex discrimination issue.”?

The arguments before a panel of ?the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals came after the same court rejected a request from the ACLU of Kentucky in August to let transgender minors access certain medical care like puberty blockers.?

The ACLU asked for emergency relief on July 18. The request came days after a federal judge stayed a temporary block on part of SB150’s medical prohibitions.?

The law also bans gender-related surgeries like phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on minors. But neither the ACLU nor Kentucky LGBTQ+ organizations are challenging the ban on such surgeries.

Schuster argued that “the evidence in this record shows that withholding treatment – even up until the age of 18 – and allowing puberty to occur consistent with the sex identified at birth is extraordinarily harmful to these children.”?

“And what this regulates is not just procedures that they can’t get until the age of 18,” she said. “It’s many aspects of these children’s lives while they’re in school and able to get treatment that is medically indicated and medically necessary for them to live and develop into functioning and happy adults.”?

Friday’s arguments — streamed to the press and public with audio only — were heard by Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton and judges Amul Thapar and Helene White.?

One of the judges said “I feel like there’s compassion (in) both directions.”?

He continued: “It’s not crazy to say that there’s a compassion component to the other side of this, that maybe this is the kind of thing some people might regret if they do it at age 14, 15.”?

Kuhn argued that SB150 was indeed “a compassion measure.”?

“The plaintiffs think that Senate Bill 150 is going to cause harm to children,” Kuhn said in rebuttal. “And the Kentucky General Assembly thinks it’s going to prohibit harm for children.”?

This story may update.

Bishop Leonard Fairley (Photo submitted)

As hundreds of United Methodist churches in Kentucky left the denomination over LGBTQ+ issues, some members disappointed with the disaffiliation wanted to remain United Methodists.

Despite the rift, Kentucky United Methodist Bishop Leonard Fairley remained optimistic about the denomination’s future, predicting that United Methodists “will show the love of God by starting new faith communities throughout Kentucky.”

Fairley on Sunday will help celebrate the first new faith community to officially join the United Methodist fold, Antioch United Methodist Church in Erlanger.

Fairley will preach at the 10 a.m. “chartering service” at the Receptions Event Center on 1379 Donaldson Highway. The media have been invited.

Most of Antioch’s 75-member congregation belonged to other United Methodist churches but were not in the voting majority when those churches decided to leave the United Methodist Church (UMC). It took at least a two-thirds vote of a church’s participating members to disaffiliate. Those not seeking disaffiliation basically were left without a church.

Other churches may follow the route of Antioch, said Cathy Bruce, communications director for the Kentucky United Methodist Conference, noting that Northern Kentucky was “especially hit hard by disaffiliations.”

In Western Kentucky, she said, more than 50 people last month, also upset that their churches disaffiliated from the UMC, attended the launch of the United Methodist Church of Trigg County in Cadiz, but it has not yet scheduled to charter with the denomination.

“Sometimes it takes up to a year to get a church chartered,” Bruce said.? “Antioch has been meeting since March but just now is getting chartered.” Chartering involves making sure the church understands the various guiding points and beliefs of the United Methodist Conference.

Bruce also said another church has plans to form in the Lexington area made up of United Methodists who want to remain United Methodists.

History of the split

The disaffiliation movements started in January 2020 with a proposal to split the denomination over “fundamental differences” concerning homosexuality.

The disaffiliations picked up momentum with a decision by the UMC to allow congregations to keep their property if they voted by two-thirds of participating members to disaffiliate.

The exodus of Kentucky United Methodist churches was confirmed in June when delegates to the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church approved requests from 286 churches to leave the denomination that was formed in 1968. About 80 churches had already left in recent years.

Departing congregations ranged from Kings Mountain in Lincoln County, whose members voted 2-0 to disaffiliate, to Centenary in Lexington, where the vote was 511-45 in favor of disaffiliation.

A total of 369 United Methodist churches in the state conference with about 84,000 members decided not to leave the denomination. The Kentucky Conference of the UMC covers most, but not all, of the state.

In the Kentucky conference, more than 100 of the almost 400 congregations that have left the United Methodist Church have been approved, applied or are inquiring about joining the Global Methodists, a more conservative Christian denomination.

Global Methodist doctrine does not recognize same-sex marriages or the ordination of openly gay Methodists. Neither does the United Methodist Church, which, during years of debate surrounding LGBTQ+ issues, has repeatedly upheld its stance against gay clergy and same-sex marriage.

But the issue has been debated in the United Methodist Church for years.

That debate came to a boil in 2016 after hundreds of United Methodist clergy came out as gay and a Western regional conference elected the first openly lesbian bishop, sparking the conservatives’ push to leave the church.

United Methodists may revisit the LGBTQ+ debate next year in Charlotte at the worldwide General Conference, the denomination’s highest legislative body, the first since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But for now, the state conference will celebrate the addition of Antioch in Northern Kentucky.

The Rev. Caleb Wheat, who previously served at St. James United Methodist Church in Bowling Green with about 175 members, became pastor od Antioch at the end of June. St. James decided to stay with the United Methodists.

Wheat, 31, said this Sunday’s worship service at Antioch will include a special liturgy for chartering churches.? It will be preceded at 9 a.m. by a church “charge conference,” at which church officers will be formally elected to serve as representatives of the newly formed church.

“It is an exciting time for everyone involved with Antioch,” said Wheat.? “We especially want to thank Bishop Fairley for his guidance. Folks here have remained in the faith and in God’s love for all.? They came together after a tough situation to accomplish this together.”

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.

Sign at Kentucky Capitol on March 29 during a protest of anti-transgender legislation now being challenged in federal court. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday rejected a request from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky to let transgender minors access certain medical care once more.?

The ACLU asked for emergency relief on July 18. The request came days after a federal judge stayed a temporary block on part of a new law.?

The provisions of Senate Bill 150 under legal challenge ban gender-affirming medical care such as hormones and puberty blockers for transgender minors.?

That stay meant that SB150 was enforceable for the first time. The legislature enacted the law earlier this year but a judge in June kept it from taking effect.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is running for governor, celebrated his legal win on Tuesday.?

“Last night’s ruling was a win for Kentuckians,” he said in a statement, “and a win for our values.”?

On Twitter the ACLU said its lawyers are “disappointed” but “remain undeterred.”?

“Trans people belong in Kentucky,” the ACLU said. “Lawmakers don’t belong between providers & patients.”?

This story may update.?

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)

Citing potential “irreparable harm” to the transgender minors it represents, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has asked the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to allow them to access gender-affirming care once again.?

The request for?emergency relief came days after a federal judge stayed a temporary block on part of a new law. Senate Bill 150, among other things, banned gender-affirming medical care like hormones and puberty blockers for transgender minors.

That stay meant that SB150, is enforceable for the first time. It?passed in 2023 but a judge kept it from going into law in June.

In other words, trans minors in Kentucky at this time cannot access gender-affirming medical care.

“If the Sixth Circuit does not act on our emergency motion, SB 150 will cause the irreparable harm the preliminary injunction was intended to prevent,” Corey Shapiro, the legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. “Kentucky doctors will be prohibited from continuing to provide appropriate, recommended, and necessary care to transgender minors, who will suffer severe psychological and physical harm as a result. We are asking the Sixth Circuit simply to allow transgender youth in Kentucky to continue to receive the very same medical care previously prescribed by their health care providers.”??

A similar ruling in Tennessee

In late June, U.S. District Court Judge David Hale in Louisville sided with the ACLU of Kentucky in temporarily blocking the section of Senate Bill 150 that banned certain health care options like puberty blockers for transgender minors.

On July 8, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, overturned a similar district court ruling in Tennessee, allowing that state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans minors to take effect.

Hale based his Friday decision, temporarily reinstating Kentucky’s ban, on the appeals court ruling in the Tennessee case, the Lantern previously reported.

This story may update.?

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 on Friday stayed a temporary block on part of a new Kentucky law that banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.?

That means Kentucky’s transgender children are now banned from receiving hormone treatments, a move celebrated by Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who requested the reversal.?

“While we strongly disagree with this opinion, it is only in effect while our appeal is pending in front of the Sixth Circuit,” Corey Shapiro, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky of Kentucky, said in a statement. “It is not the final word, and we remain optimistic that with a full briefing we will achieve a positive result.”

In late June, U.S. District Court Judge David Hale in Louisville sided with the ACLU of Kentucky in temporarily blocking the section of Senate Bill 150 that banned certain health care options like puberty blockers for transgender minors.?

Last week the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, overturned a similar district court ruling in Tennessee, allowing that state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors to take effect.

Hale based his Friday decision, temporarily reinstating Kentucky’s ban, on the appeals court ruling in the Tennessee case.

Cameron, who is running for Kentucky governor, said in a statement that the ruling was a “win for parents and children.” He also criticized the “influences of leftist activists.”?

“Moving forward, my office will continue to defend Senate Bill 150 and stand up for the right of children to be children,” Cameron said.?

Senator Max Wise, who sponsored SB150, also celebrated the court’s decision.?

“I’m pleased to know the holistic well-being of Kentucky’s transgender children, at least for now, will be fully considered,” Max said.?

Rebecca Blankenship, the executive director, and Michael Frazier, government affairs director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a joint statement that the decision marks “an extremely difficult moment” for the state’s trans children.

The decision, Blankenship and Frazier said, “was a lost battle, but not the end of the war in this case or the broader fight to protect Kentucky’s kids.”

This story may update.?

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office issued an opinion this week saying guidance by the Kentucky Department of Education on a controversial new anti-trans law is “incorrect.”?

Last month, the department issued new guidance on Senate Bill 150 highlighting the use of “or” in a section of the bill, seemingly advising that the new law gives schools a choice between not teaching students in fifth grade and below about topics like human sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases or not giving instruction to any students that explores gender identity, expression or sexual orientation.??

“Senate Bill 150 does not permit school districts to choose one of its two restrictions on curricula content. The law prohibits not only instruction on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases for children in grades 5 or below, but also instruction, for any grade level, on gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation,” says the opinion written by Assistant Attorney General Jeremy J. Sylvester and signed by Cameron.

It also says the law “preserves the First Amendment rights of students and teachers.” It clarifies that a previous guidance on issued by the department “correctly interpreted” the law. The opinion states that a school district implementing the law “does not constitute a Title IX violation.”

“Senate Bill 150 simply prevents schools from implementing a policy concerning preferred pronouns that teachers and students must follow under the threat of discipline,” the opinion says. “Senate Bill 150 does not prevent teachers and students from voluntarily referring to students by their preferred pronouns if they choose to do so.”?

According to footnotes in the opinion, the Attorney General’s Office claims that Education Commissioner Jason Glass or his attorneys “must know the legislative intent behind Section 2, because he stated repeatedly (at least 8 times) during a recent interview on Kentucky Tonight that the ‘or’ was a ‘mistake.’”?

“Daniel Cameron is free to offer all the opinions he wants on how SB 150 should be interpreted and his beliefs on whether it conflicts with federal law,” Glass said in a statement Friday. “However, such matters are not settled by Cameron’s opinion — they are settled in court. Additionally, the General Assembly may provide greater clarity in their statute once they gavel into session to correct any errors they may have included.”

The website for the Office of the Attorney General says opinions “do not have the force of law, but they are persuasive and public officials are expected to follow them.”

Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed the legislation. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky called it “the worst anti-trans bill in the nation.” A federal judge recently sided with the ACLU and temporarily blocked a section of Senate Bill 150 regarding a ban on minors’ gender-affirming care.?

Cameron, who is the current Republican gubernatorial candidate, has often spoken in favor of the law. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of the bill was overturned.?

After KDE issued guidance regarding the use of “or” in the law, Beshear said “we can’t read a law having different words in it than what is actually on the paper that they vote on and that they ultimately pass.”?

Kentucky high school students have led protests against the bill in cities such as Lexington and Louisville.?

Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, a website design company in Colorado, speaks with supporters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on Dec. 5, 2022, in Washington, DC. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor Friday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

This story was updated Friday afternoon.

Colorado cannot compel a website designer to create custom sites for same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an opinion released Friday.

The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, came in?303 Creative v. Elenis. Plaintiff Lorie Smith argued the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, violates her constitutional right to free speech.? She believes, based on her religion, that?marriage should be between one man and one woman,?and therefore she does not want to create wedding websites that feature her own original content for same-sex couples.

Aubrey Elenis, who is named as a defendant, is the director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

“The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” the court said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, during a Friday news conference at the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver, cast the ruling as an extreme shift that will allow all sorts of businesses to discriminate against many different communities.

“Today’s decision in 303 Creative permits businesses to turn away customers because of who they are,” Weiser said. “Based on the claimed ‘expressive’ interest, this radical opinion is far out of step of the will of the American people and our values as Americans. It is a significant departure from decades of established cases that all uphold the principle that our nation is committed to equal justice for all.”

Smith argued that creating the kind of websites she envisions is a form of speech, while the defendants argued it’s a service, and therefore “public accommodation” laws apply. Smith’s team said during oral arguments in December that the anti-discrimination law constitutes compelled speech in Smith’s case, meaning she would be forced to convey messages against her personal beliefs.

The court’s opinion says that while many states’ public accommodations laws have extended to cover most forms of business operations, “no public accommodations law is immune from the demands of the Constitution,” and therefore cannot compel speech.

“In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance,” the court said. “As this Court has long held, the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong.”

Gorsuch was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett in the majority opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“As I will explain, the law in question targets conduct, not speech, for regulation, and the act of discrimination has never constituted protected expression under the First Amendment,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “Our Constitution contains no right to refuse service to a disfavored group.”

This is the second case from Colorado related to LGBTQ discrimination that made its way to the Supreme Court. The first was?Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which involved a cake shop owner who denied a same-sex couple a wedding cake based on religious beliefs. The Masterpiece case focused on the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause, while the 303 Creative case focused on the free speech clause.

Sweeping effects

In his remarks Friday, Weiser emphasized the potential broad implications of the ruling. He said the court’s decision “means a business could refuse to serve an interracial couple claiming that interracial marriage is wrong. It means a payroll company or photographer could say, ‘I don’t want to do business with women-owned businesses, because I don’t believe women should be working outside the home.’ It means a bookseller of religious texts could say, ‘I’m not going to sell books to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because I don’t believe that it’s a legitimate religion,’ and so on.”

President Joe Biden in a statement echoed Weiser’s interpretation.

“While the Court’s decision only addresses expressive original designs, I’m deeply concerned that the decision could invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans,” Biden said in a statement. “More broadly, today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations — including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the country’s first openly gay man elected governor, noted that while the ruling did not invalidate the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Law, it opened a legal pathway for business owners who claim they’re selling “expressive” or “artistic” items to discriminate.

“Unfortunately, Americans have seen the Supreme Court become increasingly obsessed with taking away freedoms,” Polis said in a statement.

Weiser suggested a solution Friday.

“On the legal front, we’re going to do all we can to work to limit the impact of this decision and, ultimately, to overturn this decision,” Weiser said during the news conference, adding, referring the Supreme Court’s reversal of the constitutional right to get an abortion, “Like the Dobbs decision of last year, this decision is not what our Constitution, what our democratic republic, stands for, which is founded on the promise of equal justice for all.”

The most important response to the ruling is for businesses to choose to serve everyone, he said.

This was a message that Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, which advocates for the LGBTQ community, voiced during the news conference.

“We call on all fair-minded businesses and owners to condemn discrimination and continue the long-standing commitment to treat everyone with dignity and respect and to remain open to all,” Bridges said.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected]. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.

Hindman Methodist Church in Knott County joined the new Global Methodist Church. (Photo courtesy of Hindman Methodist Church)

Jacob Wilson, 28, was excited about starting as the pastor of a church in southeastern Kentucky on June 25. Both he and his new congregation in Hindman had left the United Methodist Church in opposition to gay clergy and same-sex marriage — and joined the new Global Methodist Church.

Subscribing to conservative views of the Bible, Global Methodists are a Christian Protestant denomination claiming 1,700 congregations and 1,200 clergy around the world.

In Kentucky, more than 100 of the almost 400 congregations that have left the United Methodist Church have been approved, applied or are inquiring about joining the Global Methodists, said Mike Powers, a retired United Methodist pastor in Lexington who is spearheading efforts to attract disaffiliated churches to the new denomination.?

The exodus of Kentucky Methodists was confirmed earlier this month when delegates to the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church approved requests from 286 churches to leave the denomination that was formed in 1968. About 80 churches had already left in recent years.?

Departing congregations ranged from Kings Mountain in Lincoln County, whose members voted 2-0 to disaffiliate, to Centenary in Lexington, where the vote was 511-45 in favor of disaffiliation.

Wilson’s 75-member Hindman Methodist Church voted 42-1 to leave the United Methodist Church.?

Split helping spawn a new denomination

Wilson resigned in May as reporter/editor of The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg to move with his wife, Taylor Wilson, to the Knott County seat. He formerly had been an associate pastor at Versailles United Methodist Church and pastor at Camargo in Montgomery County and Mt. Carmel in Fleming County.? He was with the United Methodist Church for about six years and then departed, last attending New Harvest Assembly of God in Frankfort.??

“The Global Methodist Church is a very loving denomination and welcomes everyone,” said Wilson. “The United Methodist Church has had too many disagreements.”?

“I do not bear ill will for the LGBTQ community. Gays and lesbians will be welcome at Hindman, a church that follows the Bible,” Wilson said.

Global Methodist doctrine does not recognize same-sex marriages or the ordination of openly gay Methodists. Neither does the United Methodist Church, which, during years of debate surrounding LGBTQ+ issues, has repeatedly upheld its stance against gay clergy and same-sex marriage. That debate came to a boil in 2016 after hundreds of United Methodist clergy came out as gay and a Western regional conference elected the first openly lesbian bishop, sparking the conservatives’ push to leave the church.?????????

350 remaining churches will start ‘new faith communities,’ says bishop

Remaining in Kentucky are about 350 United Methodist Church congregations with more than 84,000 members.

United Methodists may revisit the LGBTQ+ debate next year in Charlotte at the worldwide General Conference, the denomination’s highest legislative body, the first since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.?

The disaffiliation movements started in January 2020 with a proposal to split the denomination. The disaffiliations picked up momentum with a decision by the United Methodist Church to allow congregations to keep their property if they voted by two-thirds of participating members to disaffiliate.

Despite the church losses, Leonard Fairley, resident bishop of the Louisville Area, which includes the Kentucky Conference in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, is optimistic about the denomination’s future.

“Our remaining members are ready to step into a new reality with a leaner, nimbler desire to ‘Show the Love of God’ – which just happened to be the theme of our 2023 gathering,” Fairley said in a letter to Kentucky media. Fairley also wrote, “We will show the love of God by starting new faith communities throughout Kentucky.”

Emotional and sad

Powers, 70, who recently was named president pro tempore for the Global Methodist Church’s MidSouth Region that includes all of Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, mid-to eastern Tennessee and two counties in Georgia, said the church is “a fellowship of like-minded people.”

Powers has served as a pastor in Hindman, Science Hill, Harrodsburg, Morehead, State Street in Bowling Green and at First Church in Lexington.

Citing passages from the Bible’s New and Old Testaments, the Global Methodist website says:

• “Human sexuality is a gift of God that is to be affirmed … within the legal and spiritual covenant of a loving and monogamous marriage between one man and one woman.”?
• “We are saddened by all expressions of sexual behavior, including pornography, polygamy, and promiscuity, that do not recognize the sacred worth of each individual or that seek to exploit, abuse, objectify, or degrade others.”
• “While affirming a scriptural view of sexuality and gender, we … are committed to being a safe place of refuge, hospitality, and healing for any who may have experienced brokenness in their sexual lives.”?

Both Powers and Wilson said the disaffiliation process has been emotional and sad but believe the Global Methodist Church is the way to go.

“I respect my friends in the United Methodist Church who do not agree with me.? They are not my enemies,” Powers said. “This is a great honor for me after retiring to work on this. I just want to connect people to the love of Jesus.

“Everything we have been doing for the Global Methodist Church in the last seven months has been voluntary.? We think what we are doing is that important.

“I consider all this is about my children’s children’s children.”

Hundreds of people gathered at Washington Square Park in New Orleans on March 31, 2023, for a march to mark Transgender Day of Visibility. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

The church formerly known as Seddon United Methodist in Maysville painted over part of its name as members decided to leave the denomination. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jack Brammer)

On a cold morning last winter, some of the 50 to 75 members of a church on Forest Avenue in Maysville used pens in their small, but beloved, house of worship for a most symbolic action.

They carefully used the sharp points to cut out the word “United” on the front of their hymn books and then colored in the empty space.

All that was left to read on the hymnals was Seddon Methodist Church.

To further highlight that Seddon was leaving the United Methodist Church, light red paint was used to obscure the word “United” on the awning over the church’s front door.? It now reads “Seddon Methodist Church.”? Also, a large metal cross with a flame — the symbol of the United Methodist Church — was removed from the church and its van.

Seddon, which started preaching and teaching the Bible in 1872 and joined the United Methodist Conference in 1968, is one of scores of churches in Kentucky and the nation that has disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church over a long debate about gay rights.

Last December the Kentucky Conference announced that 57 of its churches had disaffiliated. Over the last four years, 80 have left the United Methodist Church in Kentucky. About 663 with more than 150,000 members remain in the state as of early this year. Among Christian denominations in Kentucky, United Methodists trail Southern Baptists with 904,352 members and Catholics with 356,064 members.

Disaffiliation will be very much on the minds of delegates to the Kentucky Methodists’ Annual Conference that begins Sunday and runs through Wednesday at the Owensboro Convention Center.?

The conference will review more church requests to exit the United Methodist Church. It is to approve them by the end of June.

In that group will be Seddon. Also, Centenary in suburban Lexington with its more than 3,700 members will be on the list. ?First United Methodist Church in downtown Lexington with its 1,643 members did not vote on disaffiliation and decided to stay with the United Methodist Church.

Similar scenarios are playing out across the nation.? Emotions run high, especially for longtime members of churches.

“It’s a very sad time for our denomination,” said Lu-Ann Farrar, a member of Lexington’s First United Methodist Church.

Her minister, Todd Nelson, said he understands that the total of disaffiliated churches in Kentucky since 2019 will rise to about 380 once this year’s requests are approved.?

“That will be about half of the United Methodist churches in Kentucky since the voting to disaffiliate began a few years ago,” he said.?

?“The split in the church is here,” he said. “We’re just seeing now what the count will be of those that leave and those that stay.”

Leonard Fairley, resident bishop of the Louisville Area, which includes the Kentucky Conference in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, did not reply to numerous questions over the last four months from the Kentucky Lantern to him and his staff in their offices in Crestwood about the disaffiliation process and the reasons for it.

He first asked the Lantern to submit its questions in writing but did not respond to them though he has pledged transparency.?

In his statement in a report to conference delegates in Owensboro, Fairley said, “Sisters and brothers in Christ, this is a historic Annual Conference. One that brings with it a sense of both grief and joy as we mourn the loss of our sisters and brothers to disaffiliation.?

“However, we cannot and must not lose ourselves in the hopelessness of despair. We must exhibit the courage to live into the audacious promises of God that come when we love one another.”

The Rev. Taylor W. Burton Edwards, director of Ask the United Methodist Church, in Nashville, Tennessee, did provide information to the Lantern about the disaffiliation process.?

How disaffiliation came about

Disaffiliation in the United Methodist Church started with a rift over LGBTQ issues that has been continuing for years. The debate on disaffiliation has taken a circuitous route.

Even though the denomination has repeatedly voted to keep its traditional stance on marriage as only between a man and a woman, conservatives complain that progressives in the denomination have repeatedly ignored the rules.

The debate reached a boiling point in 2016 after hundreds of United Methodist clergy across the nation came out as gay and when a Western regional conference elected the first openly lesbian bishop.

In 2016 at the denomination’s worldwide meeting, held every four years and known as the General Conference, a special commission was formed to review the church’s policies on sexuality.

That sparked creation of a conservative advocacy group known as the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which invited United Methodist churches to join to push for stricter policies on sexuality.

In a special session of the General Conference in 2019, delegates did not change the denomination’s position that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. But traditionalists still were not satisfied.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association said “a parting of ways is the only viable way forward.”??

The General Conference signed off on a plan at the 2019 session to allow churches to disaffiliate based on views on sexuality.

Disaffiliation votes have been occurring over the last few years. They are to end this year.

The United Methodist Church has not held a General Conference since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next General Conference is in 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2020, the denomination had about 6.3 million members and 30,543 churches in the United States. Worldwide, it had nearly 13 million members and 43,409 churches.

Highlights of the disaffiliation process

A church vote must be held within 120 days after the district superintendent calls for the church meeting. The decision to disaffiliate must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the professing members of the local church present at the vote.

The local church must pay to the United Methodist Church any unpaid apportionments for the 12 months prior to disaffiliation, as well as an additional 12 months of apportionments.?

The disaffiliated church also must pay its share of the pension liability for active and retired clergy, as well as its share of medical liability for retired clergy and surviving spouses.

It’s possible for the congregation to retain much or all of its church property and assets. There have been some court cases across the nation involving disputes between disaffiliated congregations and the United Methodist Church.

Some members who disagree with their church’s vote have moved to different churches. Any United Methodist minister who wants to stay with the United Methodist Church but presides over a disaffiliated church can be transferred.

Disaffiliation is complete only when all payments due are made in full, the annual conference has approved the motion of disaffiliation and the effective date of disaffiliation set by the annual conference is reached.?

?A disaffiliated church

Grace on the Hill Community Church, off Cumberland Falls Highway in Corbin, was one of the first large churches in Kentucky to leave the United Methodist Church in June 2022. It has a membership of about 360.

It is now a non-denominational church. Among its beliefs spelled out on its website is that “the practice of homosexuality and cohabitation outside of marriage is not compatible with Scripture or the will of God.”

“This is a conservative church as is much of Southeastern Kentucky,” said its pastor, Scott Wilson. He said even an openly gay member of the church voted to disaffiliate. He declined to identify the person.

“We do invite everyone to come to our church and worship the Lord,” said Wilson. “We love everybody. There’s no place for hating anyone but we believe the Bible tells us how we should live.”

?List of Kentucky churches that disaffiliated last year

The official list of Kentucky churches leaving the United Methodist Church this year won’t be known until late June or so.?

The Kentucky Annual Conference, at a special meeting last December, voted 332 to 29 to accept the requests of 57 churches ?to disaffiliate.

According to its website, Bishop Fairley told the group, “There is nothing easy about separating from the people who have shared a significant part of your life.”?

He mentioned shared ministries and events, such as working side by side on mission teams for major disasters in Kentucky, a journey to the Holy Land, camping ministries, and helping the United Methodist Children’s Homes and the United Methodist retirement communities, adding that “there is so much we have done together in the name of Jesus Christ.”

“It will always be my prayer, somehow that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can still together be about joyfully worshiping Christ, offering salvation, by offering help, healing and hospitality to all God’s children,” Fairley said.

He also said that despite the grief and sorrow, he believes that “God is up to something supernaturally amazing and mysteriously extraordinary,” and that the United Methodist Church’s best years still are ahead.

Here are the 57 departing churches, by district, in Kentucky announced last December.??

More are to come.

Bluegrass: Early’s Chapel, Mortonsville, Mt. Zion (Shakertown), Perryville.

Heartland: Cedar Grove, Overdale.

Kentucky East: Belfry, Buchanan Chapel, Cannonsburg Trinity, Catlettsburg, East Fork, Hardy, Olive Hill, Tollesboro.

Lexington: Bybee, Gunns Chapel, Herrington, Preachersville, Ruddles Mill, Shiloh.

Northern Kentucky: Fosters Chapel, Goddards Chapel, Melbourne, Milton, Morningview, Owenton, Piqua, Shiloh.

Owensboro: Big Springs Corners, Fairview.

Pennyrile: Bethel, Dixie, McMurray Chapel, Stuart Chapel.

South Central: Barnetts Creek, Boyds Creek, Campground, Center, Christies Chapel, Coffeys Chapel, Cosby, French Valley, McKendree Chapel, New Bethel, Old Zion, Park, Russell Springs, Shiloh, Walkers Chapel.

South East: Corbin Trinity, Fellowship, Macedonia, Pleasant View, Science Hill, Twin Branch, Whitesburg, Williamsburg First.

Emma Curtis (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jamie Lucke)

LEXINGTON — Democrat Emma Curtis on Thursday kicked off her campaign to succeed the late Rep. Lamin Swann as state representative from a south Lexington district.

Curtis, who would be Kentucky’s first transgender legislator, said she wants to be a voice for transgender youth but is equally committed to working for the 93rd District to advance affordable housing, reproductive health, and education by raising teachers’ salaries not lowering standards.

Standing before a small crowd of supporters and news reporters in the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza, Curtis said, “I think it is an incredibly poignant moment to be announcing here today on the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month after the onslaught of legislative attacks this past session on LGBTQ kids and in particular trans youth. And I want every trans kid, every queer kid watching this today to know that Kentucky is for them too, and they have a say in the future of this commonwealth.”

Curtis — who? said she grew up on a tobacco farm in Woodford County, studied at Centre College and works as a filmmaker — became the face of transgender Kentuckians during the recent legislative session when she frequently testified before committees of lawmakers considering anti-LGBTQ bills, most of which became law.

The special election for Swann’s seat will be held Nov. 7, the same day as the General Election.

Swann, 45, who died May 14, was in his first legislative term. The 93rd House District gained its current configuration during redistricting in 2022 in response to population growth in Lexington and population loss in Eastern Kentucky.

Political party executive committee members in Fayette County will choose nominees.

Curtis, 26, said the Democrats will pick a nominee in September. She said she was “extremely confident” of receiving the Democratic nomination and victory in the special election in November.

On Thursday, Curtis described Swann as a “friend and mentor” who pushed her to “go from just being somebody who attended political events to somebody who organizes political events.” She said Swann supporters had urged her to run. “I am very much inspired to pick up the torch where he left it” and to? “continue his legacy of being the most accessible, most transparent and the most available state representative I can be for my constituents.”

Curtis disputed what she called the “myth” that “Kentucky is not ready for a trans candidate.”

“Something that I learned from Rep. Swann is that your identity, who you are, is your superpower. This is your biggest strength and it is your biggest asset. And I am very much looking forward to turning out the LGBTQ vote across the state.”?

Sign at Kentucky Capitol on March 29 during a protest of anti-transgender legislation now being challenged in federal court. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and other plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to block part of a law they have said is the worst anti-trans bill in the United States.?

The ACLU of Kentucky filed for a preliminary injunction Monday to block a section of Senate Bill 150, due to be implemented in late June and banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, until its legal challenge is decided. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month.

SB 150, which the GOP-dominated legislature passed over the veto of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, also enacts restrictions on which bathrooms minors can use, limits the scope of sex education students receive and allows school staff to misgender trans minors. No challenges have been filed to those provisions.?

Corey Shapiro, the legal director for ACLU of Kentucky, in a statement said the families the organization represents in the lawsuit “should be able to begin or continue essential medical care.”?

“Banning medically necessary care for trans youth is not supported by science or reputable major medical organizations,” Shapiro said. “These are merely political attacks from groups with a fundamental opposition to transgender people being able to live openly, freely, and affirmed as who they really are.”?

The legal organization’s motion states that without an injunction, the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors will cause “irreparable physical and mental harm” to transgender youth and their parents.

“(A) transgender minor who has been receiving and benefitting from these medications and who is then required to stop taking them (either immediately or over time) ‘will suffer and their mental health will deteriorate,’” the motion states, citing testimony from a pediatric endocrinologist in Louisville.

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a motion last week to intervene in the case to defend SB 150. A spokesperson for Cameron’s office did not directly answer a question on whether Cameron plans to oppose the motion for a temporary injunction.?

“The United States Constitution does not guaranty a right to receive a particular treatment for gender dysphoria in children, nor does it prevent the Commonwealth from regulating medical practices it has determined are harmful,” Cameron’s motion to intervene stated. “Section 4 of Senate Bill 150 furthers the General Assembly’s substantial and compelling interest in protecting children.”

Twenty-two organizations representing health care professionals, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, also filed a motion Monday seeking permission to file a brief in support of the ACLU of Kentucky’s motion for an injunction.?

“As a group of well-respected medical and mental health organizations, amici seek to offer this Court their scientific views and insights regarding the serious medical condition known as gender dysphoria; the accepted standard of care — known as gender-affirming care — for treating individuals suffering from gender dysphoria; and the consequences of prohibiting healthcare providers from providing adolescents with critical, medically necessary, evidence-based treatments for gender dysphoria as would be required by S.B. 150,” the groups’ motion states.

This story has been updated to clarify the type of injunctive relief sought by the ACLU.

Credit: Kentucky Blood Center

Saying the need for blood “doesn’t take a vacation” the Kentucky Blood Center is asking the public to donate in the coming months.

As part of an “SOS” – Save our Summer – campaign, the center will give away tickets to amusement park Kings Island, LexLive movie tickets, gift cards, Rupp Arena concert tickets and, of course, T-shirts.?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have stopped giving blood, which left Kentucky – and the nation – in a critical blood shortage.?

And even though the supply has somewhat stabilized, people tend not to donate as much in the warmer months.?

“We tend to have to work harder in the summer to collect blood to serve local patients at hospitals throughout the state,” Mandy Brajuha, vice president of external relations for the KBC, said in a statement.?

“Historically, an uptick in transfusions at any point in the summer can really put us in a tough position due to the drop off in donations,” Brajuha added. “Blood must be on the shelves when need arises.”

Blood donation centers recently urged even more donations following mass shootings in Louisville. Treating the injured took dozens of donations. People who get shot need 10 times more blood during transfusions than people injured other ways – like car wrecks or stabbings, according to Johns Hopkins.?

Kentucky has had more than 260 shootings in which 191 people were injured so far in 2023. Following the deadly Old National Bank shooting on April 10, many first-time donors signed up to give blood.?

But, the need is still there – especially for those who are O-Negative, a universal type that can be used to treat people of other blood types.?

“Although we’ve seen a modest increase in donors to start 2023 in comparison to the last few years, we still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, which is worrisome entering the always-difficult summer months,” Brajuha said.?

According to the center, donations last year were 12% lower than in 2019, a pre-pandemic year.

Meanwhile, the need for blood did not drop.?

The incentives

People will get Kings Island tickets when they donate blood through the Kentucky Blood Center on these dates:?

• May 15-16: Beaumont and Andover (Lexington)
• May 22-23: Frankfort, Somerset and Tri-County (Corbin)
• June 5-6: Hillview and Middletown (Louisville) and Pikeville

Folks who donate on June 9 at Central Bank Center in Lexington from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will get:?

• A T-shirt?
• A LexLive movie ticket?
• Donors at this event will also be entered to win tickets to WWE Friday Night Smackdown on June 16 or Thomas Rhett on June 22 and Guns N’ Roses on Sept. 6 at Rupp Arena.?

To make an appointment to give blood through KBC: ?

• Visit kybloodcenter.org or
• Call 800.775.2522
• Check out a mobile drive at my.kybloodcenter.org/donor/schedules/county.?

Eligibility?

To give blood, you must be 17 or have parental consent at age 16. You must weigh no less than 110 pounds, be healthy and have photo identification.?

Citing the need for blood donation inclusivity, the United States Food and Drug Administration on Thursday paved the way for men who have sex with men to be able to give blood without abstaining from intercourse for three months before donating.?

Now, donors will answer risk-assessment questions regardless of sexual orientation.?

Still, donors will have to wait to donate if they are on HIV medications or report recent anal sex.?

These rules contribute to stigmatization of the community, Chris Hartman, the executive director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, told the Lantern.?

“There are still disparities that disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community” when it comes to blood donations, he said.?

“I’m glad the FDA is continuing to update the rules,” he added. “(But) it is obvious they are still not listening to our community clearly.”?

Silas House is inducted as Kentucky poet laureate at the annual Kentucky Writers Day celebration in the state Capitol rotunda in Frankfort. (Photo by Tom Eblen)

LOUISVILLE – Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, author Silas House saw early the power of representation in literature.?

Lead character John-Boy in the award-winning television series “The Waltons,” for example, was his “hero.”?

Here was a young country boy who, like House, dreamed of writing.?

“I didn’t know anybody who wanted to be a writer,” said House, who on April 24 became Kentucky’s new poet laureate. “I especially didn’t even know any boys who would admit to reading.?So I was pretty lonely in the world as a reader, as a boy.”?

In his new post, House feels “an extra layer of responsibility” to represent Kentuckians — and the full spectrum of the human experience, he said in a recent sweeping interview with the Kentucky Lantern.?

People call him many things: Appalachian writer, working class writer, a writer of faith.?

Now, he’s the state’s first openly gay poet laureate.?

“I’m not offended by any of those labels,” the New York Times bestselling author said. “But … the way I think of myself is totally multifaceted.”?

He strives to represent his characters that way, too.?

“Any good writer is fascinated by human beings,” said House, whose awards include the 2023 Southern Book Prize and the Duggins Prize.?

He started studying people in the long holiness church services he attended as a child.?

“I was not allowed to take any toys with me, but I was allowed to take a notebook and pencil,” he said. “I remember studying people during those church services, and I would write … a little character sketch about everybody in the church … when you really look closely at people, it’s hard to see them as one dimensional.”?

‘There is no monolithic gay person.’?

House’s appointment as poet laureate – the first openly gay Kentuckian in the role – comes after a legislative session featuring several?anti-LGBTQ bills.?

Lawmakers banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors amid some bipartisan opposition.?

Additionally, schools can now keep trans students from using the bathroom of their choice and teachers can misgender trans youth.?

Drag shows also came under heat this session, which ended March 30.?

“There are so many people that have felt … belittled and hurt by that legislation,” House said. “It feels like it’s legislation by a very vocal majority of the legislators that doesn’t really line up with the majority of Kentuckians, which, in a way, makes it even more frustrating.”?

House, who’s spoken openly about having a transgender son, said the push for more parents’ rights this session didn’t include parents of LGBTQ+ children.?

“No LGBT person I know is asking for special rights — they’re only asking to be treated equally. The same as parents of LGBT people should be treated like any other parents,” he said. “I think that’s one of the things that the legislation really has illuminated is that the parents of LGBT children are being given less rights than the parents of straight children.”?

He’s focused on being “diplomatic” while representing all Kentuckians in his new role.?

“I know that it’s important especially for young queer people to see me in the public,” he said. “I’m just happy to be out there as an openly gay person and to be visible and to show people that there is no monolithic gay person.”?

Being gay also shouldn’t be politicized, House said.?

“Somebody said to me the other day: ‘Why do you have to be so political about being gay?’” he said. “I’m not the one who politicized being gay. I’m just living my life.”?

‘No agenda’ when writing.?

Gov. Andy Beshear praised House’s work when introducing him as the new poet laureate.?

“We are so proud of Silas, who grew up in Kentucky, was educated in Kentucky and now represents our state with such pride,” Beshear said. “Our commonwealth is fortunate to have him here teaching our future writers and now serving as our literary ambassador to the world.”

After Beshear — who is running for a second term ?— announced House’s appointment, the Republican Governors Association featured the writer in a 28-second attack ad calling him a “radical.”?

Among those who jumped to House’s defense on Twitter was singer Jason Isbell, who tweeted, “Silas is my friend and he’s a wonderful person and y’all can just stay mad.”?

“Anybody who knows me knows how much I love Kentucky,” House said in response to the ad. “I, especially as poet laureate, seek to represent as many Kentuckians as I can. I think that my many different identities allows me to represent a whole lot of Kentuckians because I’m not just one thing. Nor is anybody else.”?

House wants people to think when they read his work, but said he doesn’t write with an agenda.?

He seeks to challenge people’s way of thinking — just like literature did for him.?

The reach of literature: Books can change a worldview?

House’s latest book, “Lark Ascending,” is full of warning signs about what can happen when people buy into extremism.?

“I know literature can get to people like that and can change people like that because it’s happened to me,” House said.?

When he was a child, he said, he mostly believed whatever he learned in church. But when he was 14, he read the frequently banned book, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker.

“I had been raised with this idea of God as this old white man in the sky with a big long white beard and he’s watching everything and he’s ready to throw a lightning bolt at anybody who disobeys,” House explained. “And suddenly she is showing me this idea of God that is loving and wants people to be happy and wants people to have pleasure. … Part of me was resisting this, because I’m like, ‘that’s not the God I was taught about.’ And the other part of me is like, ‘this is the God that makes so much more sense to me.’”?

“The Color Purple” also exposed him to race and to people unlike him for the first time.?

“I was only raised around white people,” he said. “It wasn’t an integrated place.”?

Literature, he learned, can set in motion a thinking evolution and expanding point of view.?

“That book totally changed my way of thinking,” he said. “It changed my worldview so that I evolved in my thinking afterwards.”

Coal and climate change: ‘We have to transition.’?

In 2021 and 2022, House’s home region of Eastern Kentucky was hit with back-to-back deadly floods.?

Though the region has survived many such catastrophes, science predicts flooding will become worse as Kentucky’s climate warms because of climate-warming emissions built up in the atmosphere.?

House has often written about climate change, too, and advocated for protecting natural resources.?

“I hear a lot of politicians talking about ‘we need a transitional economy,’” he told the Lantern. “That’s their job – is to make that happen. And one way that that could really happen is through … being a part of solar and wind power creation.”?

Kentucky is missing an opportunity, he said, to lead when it comes to solving the climate crisis.?

“The whole state is just a ripe opportunity for that to happen in a widespread way and we’re not taking advantage of it,” he added. “I think it’s easy to see why we’re not because it doesn’t behoove some politicians as much as other forms of energy do.”?

House grew up in a coal and tobacco economy. His uncles, grandfather and brother-in-law worked in coal mines. His coal mining grandfather lost a leg in the mines, House said, and suffered from black lung, which is lung scarring from coal dust inhalation.?

“I just keep hearing ‘coal’ dragged out,” House said. “It’s a proud heritage. We fueled the world. And I’m really proud to be the grandson of a coal miner. That’s a big part of my identity. … But we have to move beyond that. We have to transition.”

Lawmakers need to be “more progressive in their thinking about a just transitional economy for Kentucky,” House said.?

He wishes climate change and natural resources discussions were not politicized.?

“It just blows my mind that things like … keeping our water clean is politicized,” he said. “There’s this whole idea that if you say, if you acknowledge that climate change is real, then … you’ve … exposed yourself as too liberal or something. It boggles my mind that … we don’t do everything in our power to protect our water and our resources. It just speaks of what an instant gratification way of thinking we have.”?

‘Poetry has really always sustained me.’?

Kentucky’s poet laureate, whose job is to elevate the literary arts in the state, need not be a poet.

House is known for his novels but he has published poetry. And the genre “has really always sustained me,” House said, comparing the form to music and song.?

“The first thing I do when I start working on a novel is: I gather the poetry that is going to speak thematically and tonally to the novel I’m working on,” House said.?

To him, the best poetry is accessible verse and “can speak to you pretty easily.”?

One of the poets he thinks does that well is Ada Limón, the United States poet laureate who makes a home in Lexington but is from Sonoma, California.?

“A lot of people are turned off by poetry that makes them feel dumb,” House said. “And her poetry is easy to read even while it’s incredibly profound, thought provoking.”?

Other notable writers of our time have called Kentucky home – bell hooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Wendell Berry and more.

House wants to use his tenure to bring more attention to Kentucky’s writing community — essentially marrying tourism with the literary tradition.?

“The state is wonderful (at) historical markers, but there’s not a lot of them about our literature,” he said. “So I want to figure out ways to better acknowledge our literary history and our legacy and make that more visible for people who are visiting.”?

He also wants to create a program that will teach Kentucky youth how to “take oral histories from their elders,” and produce them.?

“I have … a two-year window where I can do a lot of things to help, especially young writers,” House said.?

Already, House’s days are full. He teaches at Berea College and Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. He’s a freelancer and self-promoter on top of being a writer.?

As a creative, though, it’s important that he finds stillness to avoid burnout.?

He finds it by the creek in his yard or lying in the grass with his dog, Ari.?

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius are suing to block part of a law they’ve called the worst anti-trans bill in the United States.?

This suit comes more than a month after the legislature passed controversial Senate Bill 150, which bans gender-affirming care for minors, allows teachers to misgender trans kids, regulates which bathrooms kids can use and limits the sex education students can receive.

“Under the Constitution, trans youth in Kentucky have the right to medically necessary care,” Corey Shapiro, ACLU of Kentucky’s legal director, said.

The lawsuit, he said, is “to protect against this imminent threat to their well-being and make certain they can thrive by continuing to receive medical care.”?

Attorney General Daniel Cameron issued a statement promising to “intervene to defend this law and help keep Kentucky’s kids safe.” Cameron also seeks to be Kentucky’s next governor.

Suit takes issue with ‘dangerous law.’

ACLU lawyers specifically take issue with Section Four of Senate Bill 150, which prohibits health care providers from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones, performing surgeries like phalloplasty and vaginoplasty or hysterectomies and vasectomies on minors.?Essentially, it bans gender-affirming care for trans youth. There is an exception clause for people born intersex.?

“Parents, not the government, should make medical decisions for their children,” NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter said in a statement. “This is a dangerous law that intrudes on family privacy and prevents doctors from doing their job.”?

The plaintiffs in the?lawsuit ?are seven minors and their parents identified only as John Doe or Jane Doe. The suit argues their rights to privacy are threatened by the ban, which will go into effect June 29.

A person’s transgender identity or gender dysphoria diagnosis, the suit states, is information of a “highly sensitive and personal nature.”

Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first openly trans elected official and the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a statement that “We strongly support all efforts to protect Kentucky’s kids, especially Kentucky’s most vulnerable: LGBTQ kids.”

Ban Conversion Therapy is working on a separate lawsuit.

Led by high school students, a march and speeches in downtown Lexington on April 1, 2023 called for protecting the rights of trans people. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mariah Kendell)

LEXINGTON?— Hundreds of Kentuckians on Friday gathered for a LGBTQ+ youth visibility march in downtown Lexington.

The event, led by local high school students, was organized in response to Senate Bill 150, a sweeping anti-trans measure that the Republican-controlled Kentucky legislature enacted into law this week over Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto.?

On Wednesday, protests against the legislation led to the arrest of 19 people at the Capitol in Frankfort.?

Friday’s Lexington protest coincided with the International Transgender Day of Visibility, dedicated to recognizing and raising awareness about the transgender community and the difficulties it faces. The demonstration commenced with a march downtown and concluded with speeches.?

?One of the speakers, Lillian Stewart, a senior at Frederick Douglass High School and the president of her school’s Gay Straight Alliance, urged legislators who voted for SB 150 to visit schools in their district and “talk to the kids (they) voted against.”

?“You have the duty as a public servant to vote for us and not against us,” she said to the crowd.?

?“SB 150 does nothing to protect families,” said Noah Healand, a trans student at Lafayette High School, who called for the legislature to direct its attention to other issues, like gun regulation.

Since the shooting at a Nashville school that killed six people, conservative commentators have falsely connected mass shootings to the transgender community, he said.?

The gender identity and motive of the shooter, a former student at the school, remain unclear but, in any case, Healand said “Nashville had nothing to do” with anyone being trans.?

The controversial legislation, sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, bans gender-affirming care for young people in Kentucky, including hormone therapies and reassignment surgeries for children under the age of 18. SB 150 also prohibits schools from teaching “gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.”? It mandates that students use the restroom that correlates to their biological sex and prohibits schools from compelling educators to use the preferred names or pronouns of transgender students.?

Secil Sensing, a transgender advocate who attended the rally, said. “They’ve taken my rights away. And it’s not just an inconvenience. It’s murder.”

A crowd protesting anti-transgender legislation staged a "die in" on the Kentucky Capitol grounds on March 29, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

This story discusses suicide and anti-LGBTQ attacks in Kentucky. 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 – Noah Healander’s mental health improved once he was able to live “authentically” as a transgender boy, he told a cheering crowd outside the Kentucky Capitol Wednesday.?

But when anti-trans legislation popped up in the legislature this session, “I started to fall back into a mental health spiral,” he said. “That does not mean I will give up.”?

He was one of hundreds of Kentucky students gathered on the Capitol grounds. Anticipating a vote to overturn Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of controversial anti-trans Senate Bill 150, they pleaded with lawmakers to prevent the legislation from becoming law.

Hours later, the Senate voted 29-8 to overturn the veto. The House voted to override 76-23.?

“In their so-called attempt to protect children, this legislature has sentenced many to death,” Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first openly trans elected official and the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a statement. “The LGBT community will work hard to care for one another through this crisis as we have through many before. In the end, we will survive, and we will prevail.”

SB150 bans gender affirming care for minors and 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.”? The bill also places new restrictions on sex education in public schools.?

Sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, has said the measure protects the rights of parents.?

“The goal is to strengthen parental engagement and communication in children’s education on protecting the safety of our children,” he said on the Senate floor. He added that it “reinforces a positive atmosphere in the classroom and removes unnecessary distractions.”

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

Advocates have said they worry SB150, as a law, could result in youth suicides.?Outside, between speeches, songs and poems, protesters also staged a “die in” on the grass. In waves people sat and lied on the grass to demonstrate potential fallout from SB150.?

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, reported in 2022 that 59% of Kentucky’s transgender and nonbinary kids considered suicide, and 24% tried to take their own lives.?

Healander testified before the crowd that he was one of those who tried to take his life.?

“Trans people existing are not a threat to anyone,” he said. “We’re merely fighting to maintain the most basic human rights. All of you are loved and valued. We must keep fighting until everyone has the ability to live safely and authentically.”?

Protesters holding signs that said “Love all kids,” “Stop hate” and “SB150=State Violence” cheered and clapped for him.?

Family Foundation also rallies?

Inside the Capitol Rotunda, proponents of the legislation asserted they are also motivated by love.?

Family Foundation executive director David Walls said the organization loves “each and every person created in the image of God.”?

“SB 150 will protect the lives of Kentucky’s children by setting our public policy in alignment with the truth that each and every child is created as a biological male or female, deserves to be loved, treated with dignity and accepted for who they really are,” he told that crowd.?

Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, denounced Beshear’s veto to the crowd at the Family Foundation rally. She sponsored House Bill 470, which was added to SB 150 in the House.?

“He took the radical position of protecting and promoting the multi-billion dollar business of subjecting the healthy bodies of children with gender dysphoria to chemicals and life altering surgeries before they have the cognitive ability to give informed consent,” she said.?

What did lawmakers say??

When Senate Bill 150 reached the Senate and House floors, lawmakers repeated much of the arguments they’d voiced earlier in the session.

In the House, Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville, called the veto override a “travesty.”

“We may not win today and we may not win tomorrow, but we will ultimately win,” he said. “Trans people are not going anywhere and neither are we.”

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, read from the last thing her transgender son ever wrote before he died by suicide in December.

“To say this is the bill protecting children is completely disingenuous,” she said. “And to call this a parents’ rights bill is an absolute despicable affront to me personally.”

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, voted against SB150. He previously proposed narrowing the scope of anti-trans legislation, citing his concern over youth suicides.

“Going against your entire caucus is a very uncomfortable place to be,” Carroll said on the Senate floor. “I’ve been called lots of names from people I never would expect to be called names by in the last several days.”

He again cited youth suicides in his vote explanation.

“We’re not doctors,” he said. “I trust them to make the right decisions when they’re dealing with those kids in those specific instances.”

Some lawmakers pushed back against the assertion that trans Kentuckians have made that gender-affirming surgeries for minors aren’t happening in Kentucky.

“If they weren’t, we sure as hell don’t ever want them to be happening in Kentucky,” said Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield.

For some, the biggest issue was the bathroom component of the bill.

“I have eight granddaughters,” Sen. Gary Boswell, R-Owensboro, said. “Who here could support a man going into my granddaughters’ bathroom?”

Republicans pushed through the veto override in both chambers over chanting by protesters opposing SB150 on the Senate and House steps, including protesters who chanted “trans rights are human rights” in the House gallery. Some protesters shouting in the gallery were removed by law enforcement. Some appeared to have their hands bound as they were brought out. Kentucky State Police said 19 people were arrested.

“My identity should not be put on hold”

Outside earlier Wednesday, nonbinary student June Wagner testified that their life has, recently, revolved around protesting anti-LGBTQ legislation.

This session, Kentucky legislators introduced 11 anti-LGBTQ bills, according to an American Civil Liberties Union?tracking site. More than 400 bills nationwide threaten the freedoms of speech and expression, health care and civil rights, the ACLU says.?

“My life is not something to be swept under a rug,” said Wagner, 17. “My identity should not be put on hold until I turn 18.”?

In the crowd, someone blew large bubbles that wafted up the Capitol Annex steps, past the large transgender pride flag and into the sky.?

McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.?This story may be updated.

Mark, Nancy and Jordan Bardgett. (Photo provided to LINK NKY)

This article is republished from Link NKY.

When Nancy Bardgett’s daughter came out as transgender, she was thankful that Jordan was able to receive the care she needed.?

In addition to having a supportive family, Jordan, a student at Northern Kentucky University at the time, received mental-health support.?

“She had supportive friends and she sought out resources and knew where to look for help,” Nancy said.

In 2022, the Trevor Project conducted a survey on the mental health of the LGBTQ community and found suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24. Further, LGBTQ-questioning youth are at a significantly increased risk.?

“You look at the American Medical Association, The Trevor project, and all the data is very clear,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “We should be in the business of preventing teen suicides and never contributing to it.”?

Proponents of Senate Bill 150 say LGBTQ advocates are using suicide to put kids and their health in the crosshairs on this issue.?

The bill could become law March 29 or 30 if Republican lawmakers override Gov. Andy Beshear’s March 24 veto.

The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria; John Schickel, R-Union; and Gex Williams, R-Verona, bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery or hormones for those under the age of 18. It would also prohibit schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms and force transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Opponents of the bill say it’s one of the worst pieces of “anti-trans” and “anti-LGBTQ” legislation in the country. But proponents say it would protect parental rights.

“As far as the parental rights issue, this is something that is happening all over the country,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said. “There is a lot of concern about parental rights in schools. I think it’s partially due to COVID and all the virtual learning, and parents got a front-row seat to what was happening in schools everywhere.”

One of the challenges as a parent, Bardgett said, was understanding her daughter when she came out? — something she admits she wasn’t perfect about as she fumbled over pronouns. But she worked on it.?

“One of the things that is so horrible about this bill is it’s just this effort to not let anybody understand,” Bardgett said.?

?The bill? would prevent teachers from discussing human sexuality in classrooms in any grade level. It would also prevent any sex education for those under grade 3; and without parents first opting-in for grades 6-12.

Bardgett also said that people think trans parents indoctrinate their kids, but she and her husband, Mark, didn’t necessarily want this for their daughter. They felt it might put her in harm’s way. But they also wanted their daughter to know they support her no matter what.?

In Fort Thomas, where the Bardgetts live, Nancy feels SB 150 is not what Kentucky residents stand for.

“This isn’t the people of Kentucky,” Bardgett said, who volunteers with the Campbell County Democrats, Brighton Center and in her church. “This is certain people in the Kentucky legislature.”

‘Each session takes on a life of its own’?

In October, Thayer spoke at the Covington Business Council’s legislative preview and said the 2023 legislative session would be slow paced.

In odd-numbered years, the Kentucky legislature holds 30-day sessions as opposed to 60-day budget sessions in even-numbered years.?

In 2022, with Republican supermajorities in both the House and Senate, the legislature passed bills that banned abortion, cut unemployment benefits, reduced the income tax, and set the state’s budget for 2023 and 2024.

The 2023 session would, according to Thayer, whose district stretches into southern Kenton County, be about cleaning up some of the legislation from 2022, including further reducing the income tax.

Instead, the 2023 session evolved into one focused on passing an omnibus piece of legislation focused on limiting health-care resources to transgender minors and how gender and sexuality are discussed in schools.?

Thayer also said that while leadership expected the session to be slow, the legislature is driven by its members.

“Each session takes on a life of its own,” Thayer said.

A ‘clash of worldviews’

The legislation first appeared in the House as House Bill 470 in early March, when the House Judiciary Committee passed it. The passage came amid LGBTQ advocates lining the hallways of the Kentucky Capitol annex, chanting “shame” as legislators walked by.

After it passed the committee, and with tears in her eyes, Northern Kentucky Rep. Kim Banta, R-Fort Mitchell, said she’d worked hard to prevent conversion therapy in the LGBTQ community, and that this was another step backwards.?

“I’m really upset for families right now,” Banta said. “I’m upset because I feel like we denigrated the medical profession. I feel like we’re making people feel less than and I don’t like that.”

In 2021, Banta introduced legislation that would have banned conversion therapy in the commonwealth. Banta said she tried to approach it from the angle that it is bad therapy practice.

“I tried very hard to get people to understand that I was not trying to change their religion or their belief or their thought about being gay,” Banta said.

The bill never received any movement in the legislature.

“People were way too afraid that it was going to infringe on their religious liberty,” Banta said. “I would never try to control someone’s religious liberty.”

Banta cut parts of the bill to appease some religious members of the House but felt it would be gutting the bill if she cut it anymore. She didn’t reintroduce the legislation in 2022.

When it comes to religious liberty, no group lobbies the legislature more than the Kentucky Family Foundation — a Christian organization that spent more than $13,000 to lobby the legislature in 2022 to follow “biblical values.”

David Walls, a Texas transplant, took over as the foundation’s executive director at the end of 2021. In the last two years, Walls has appeared regularly in the legislature, not only lobbying but also providing testimony on legislation deemed important by the organization.

According to the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission, the group lobbies for legislation related to parental rights, the protection of children, religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and gambling.

During Walls’ nearly two years in Kentucky, the legislature pushed through an omnibus abortion bill and this year’s omnibus “anti-trans” bill.

When Walls lived in Texas, he worked for a company called Texas Values — a spinoff of the First Liberty Institute, an organization fighting for what it calls religious freedom and Judeo-Christian values.

“All of this desire to address this issue was at a place of wanting to protect kids and wanting to keep parents empowered and in the driver’s seat of what happens to them,” Walls said. “And part of this is just a clash of worldviews.”

Walls also said that LGBTQ advocates are using the conversation over mental health and suicide in a way that’s harmful.?

“I think it is tremendously harmful and outright shameful the way in which LGBTQ advocates and the governor and others are trying to use the topic of suicide to put kids and their health and well-being in the crosshairs on this issue,” Walls said.?

Parents who opposed the bill argue it strips them of their rights to take care of their children’s health care.

Both sides presented their arguments during the House Judiciary Committee hearing for HB 470.?

Chris Bolling, a retired pediatrician from Northern Kentucky, said the bill would make it nearly impossible for pediatric medical providers to provide gender-affirming care in the state, as the legislation would be punitive for doctors with the potential to lose their license.?

“It labels medical treatment, that is the standard of care for patients with gender dysphoria, as unprofessional and unethical,” Bolling said. “It mandates the revocation of the license of any provider who provides or refers to the care and criminalizes not reporting to minors who are referring to this care.”

Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill,? said the bill sets Kentucky back decades.

“I understand the desire to keep our kids safe from predatory actions, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening,” Moser said. “I think this is, unfortunately, short-sighted and discriminatory.”?

While many Kentuckians advocated against the bill, primarily out-of-state speakers touted it during the 2023 legislative session.?

Luka Hein, a Wisconsin resident who travels the country testifying to state legislatures, explained she once identified as transgender, changing her pronouns to he/him. When she was 16, she said she received a double mastectomy and hormone therapy before detransitioning later in life. She urged the committee to vote in favor of the bill.

“I was affirmed on a path of medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long-term impacts and consequences of, nor fully consent to use it with my age and mental health,” Hein said.?

Dr. Christian Van Mol, who serves on the boards of Bethel Church of Redding and Moral Revolution — a California megachurch that gained notoriety for something called “grave sucking” where members would lie on the graves of dead revivalists and believed they would absorb the dead person’s anointing from God — testified during the House Judiciary Committee meeting.

“Transition affirming medical interventions actually imperil at-risk and gender dysphoric youth,” Van Mol said in the committee meeting.

After the bill passed the committee, legislators ushered the bill to the House floor and quickly took up a vote.

As advocates chanted outside the House chamber, members voted to pass the bill by a vote of 75-22.

Moser’s statement on the floor noted that the eyes of the world were on Kentucky.

“I would like to say to the rest of the world that’s watching Kentucky — we are not complete neanderthals,” Moser said.

In addition to Moser and Banta, Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, provided the only Republican no votes.

Bardgett regarded those no votes as acts of kindness from legislators.?

“I will tell you some of my heroes in this, and what I keep saying to people, are some of the Northern Kentucky legislators who voted no,” Bardgett said. “Because they were listening to their hearts and to their constituents, and not to their party leaders.”

A February Mason-Dixon Poll found that 71% of Kentuckians opposed any such law, with 83% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans in opposition. The poll showed that most Kentuckians would rather leave that decision up to parents.

Northern Kentucky lawmaker takes center stage in push to pass bill in Senate

After the bill cleared the House, it appeared in the Senate, and Sen. Gex Williams took a central role in the strategy to push HB 470 through the upper chamber of the Kentucky legislature.

Standing on the Senate steps near 11 p.m. on March 15, the Wednesday night before the veto period, Williams strategized with David Walls, the executive director of the Family Foundation, Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, and Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, about how to push through the bill.

The impromptu strategy session came moments after Williams motioned to table the bill to the Senate clerk’s desk — a temporary strategy to delay the vote and give the Senate time to get enough votes to pass the legislation.

The motion came after Williams filed two amendments — one early in the evening and the other later in the evening — that mirrored a law passed in South Dakota and signed into law by Gov. Kristi Noem in February that bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery and cross-sex hormones.

The amendments provided exceptions for those who must take hormones for health reasons but would ban gender-affirming surgery or medication.

Less than 12 hours later, the legislature quickly moved to pass the legislation by putting the language from House Bill 470 into a committee substitute and put it into Senate Bill 150 — a bill that initially gave teachers the option to use the pronouns of transgender students’ choosing.

The move to pass the bill started in the House when a surprise House Education meeting was called during lunch the day before the veto period on March 16. There was one agenda item — Senate Bill 150.

The move gave legislators on the committee and in the House little time to read and understand the bill.

Republicans then rushed the bill to the House floor, where a vote quickly took place, but not before Democrats spent nearly two hours trying to stall it.

“This shouldn’t be a trust exercise,” Beshear said, criticizing the maneuver. “Every legislator should have the time, as should the public, to read anything that’s coming up for a committee or for a legislative vote.”

Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford, who carried the bill in the House, cited a statistic that 66% of Kentuckians want this legislation.

But Meade wouldn’t cite the source for the statistic, and House Communications staff didn’t respond with where Meade received the numbers.

Beshear vetoed the bill on March 24, but Republican leadership in both chambers indicated they would override the veto when they return from the 10-day period on March 29.?

On the Senate floor after voting yes on the passage of SB 150, Williams said the bill was about love and concern from rising suicide rates over what he deemed to be issues with transgender people taking drugs to change their biological sex.

“When you introduce drugs, and you try to fight 30 or 40 trillion cells in your body, using drugs, the outcome is not going to be good,” Williams said.

‘Purely political vantage point’

The lone Democrat in the Northern Kentucky caucus, House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, didn’t mince words when speaking about this legislation.

“I don’t think it’s just the worst anti-trans bill in the country,” Roberts said. “I think this is one of the worst anti-LGBTQ bills in the country.”

Roberts also said the bill is a political move in a gubernatorial election year, as Republicans try to oust Democrat Andy Beshear from the governor’s office.

Outside of Beshear, Republicans control every branch of Kentucky’s government, including both chambers of the legislature and all the state’s constitutional seats — attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, state auditor, agriculture commissioner.

“I think the push for this is coming from a purely political vantage point,” Roberts said. “It’s a calculated messaging strategy on the majority party side that they think is going to help them win elections this year and the constitutional seats that are up for election, and that will be part of their messaging.”

SB 150’s sponsor is Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, who is the running mate of Republican Kelly Craft — a former United Nations ambassador appointed by former President Donald Trump who is running for governor this year.?

When Beshear vetoed the bill on March 24 and said, “I believe Senate Bill 150 tears away the freedom of parents to make important and difficult medical decisions for their kids,” Republicans across the state, including Wise and Craft, immediately attacked Beshear.

“As governor, I will fight any attempt to sexualize our children and rob them of their futures,” Craft wrote in a statement. “It’s time we dismantle the Department of Education and start fresh. Governor Beshear doesn’t have the leadership to do it, but the Craft-Wise Administration will deliver on that promise.”

Roberts argued that the “anti-trans” message is the one that will replace the abortion message — after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 triggered a law that banned the procedure in Kentucky.

“They needed the latest shiny penny thing that they could try and rally voters around, and tragically that seems to be them targeting some of the most vulnerable children in our community,” Roberts said.

While the bill played out politically in the Kentucky statehouse and in this year’s gubernatorial race, it has real world implications for trans Kentuckians. Jordan, who now attends graduate school in Illinois, has questioned whether she’ll return to the commonwealth when she finishes her studies, according to her mother, Nancy Bardgett.

Worse, Bardgett said, is that this bill will have a major impact on school aged children, with some parents starting to question whether they will move out of state.

“I think right now parents, some of them, can’t even fathom the long term implications of this bill,” Bardgett said.

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Republicans wasted no time jumping on Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill Friday that put LGBTQ rights and public schools in the political spotlight, setting the stage for both issues to play a leading role in this year’s race for governor.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Daniel Cameron, Kelly Craft and Ryan Quarles quickly issued statements criticizing Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 150, sweeping legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth, let teachers misgender trans students and not allow trans kids to use the bathroom of their choice.

The Republican Party of Kentucky issued a statement saying that the veto “may very well be remembered as the day Andy Beshear lost his bid for re-election.”?

Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said Beshear “really had no choice,” even if his veto proves symbolic as an override by the Republican supermajority is likely. The rights of transgender people have become a “defining issue” for the American left, Voss said.

“So the only question is, how do you spin it? And I think Beshear’s main message as to why he’s vetoing it, and why Kentuckians should accept that veto is a wise one,” Voss said. “He’s framing it in terms of parental rights, which is language that has worked well for Republicans.”

Most of the voters who are likely to be angered by Beshear’s veto were also likely to not vote for Democrats anyway, Voss said. For voters who fall between Democrats and Republicans and do not have policy preferences, Beshear could have an advantage in terms of perception.?

“He’s able to frame his side of this issue in what looks like a very orderly and reasoned way, a veto notification, whereas the way the Republicans got to their … anti-trans bill looked to the general public kind of like a clown show,” Voss said. “I mean, it’s just so many moving parts and it was so stop and start and this thing happens last minute after you thought something else was going to happen.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has called the legislation, which was amended and passed within hours last week, “the worst anti-trans bill in the nation.”?

When it comes to Kentucky elections, Republicans want them framed around social and cultural issues whereas Democrats would prefer the frame on economic or “lunch pail issues,” Voss added. Kentucky tends to lean more conservative on social issues than on economic and domestic policy.?

Beshear has consistently spoken in favor of trans rights and said health care for trans minors should be decided by them, their parents and doctors. In his ?veto message he said SB 150 “allows too much government interference in personal healthcare issues and rips away the freedom of parents to make medical decisions for their children.”?

Republicans decry veto

After the veto, Republicans accused Beshear of supporting gender-affirming surgeries for youth. But trans Kentuckians say that isn’t happening in the state now and that LGBTQ+ organizations have never advocated for surgeries for minors.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, considered the Republican frontrunner for governor, accused Democrats of supporting “chemical castration” and “mutilation” of minors. “That is not care — it’s irreversible and is the exact opposite of how we should support children experiencing gender dysphoria or mental health struggles.”?

Cameron said in a Friday tweet he “would have absolutely signed” the bill were he governor. Cameron also criticized media coverage of the bill and added that Beshear’s veto “not only sets a dangerous precedent for our children’s future, but also endangers their health and well-being.”?

After Cameron’s statement was issued, the campaign of former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft said Beshear’s veto was “politically motivated.” Her running mate, Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, is the primary sponsor of SB 150 and has called the legislation a way to protect parents’ rights.?

In a joint statement, Craft and Wise said Beshear is “out of step” with what Kentuckians are talking about: “communication and engagement with their children’s schools.” The two vowed to “ensure our children are protected, make sure parents are heard, and empower teachers to focus on providing a world-class education that teaches our children how to think, not what to think.”

Craft added: “As a mother and grandmother, I think the fact that we’re even having this conversation is insanity. This movement across the nation to impose radical gender ideology on our kids instead of improving reading, writing, and math skills, is wrong. We should not allow children to be subjected to these life-changing, irreversible surgeries and drugs.” She again vowed to dismantle the Department of Education and start over.??

Another candidate, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, said in a statement according to the Lexington Herald-Leader: “By vetoing this bill, Andy has shown his views more closely align with the radical far-left rather than that of Kentuckians. Gender reassignment surgeries for children and minors should not be allowed in Kentucky and teachers should have certain protections in the classroom when it comes to their own personal beliefs.”

Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first openly transgender elected official and the executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said gender-affirming surgeries for minors currently do not happen in the state and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in Kentucky haven’t opposed banning them. Blankenship is a member of the Berea Independent School District Board of Education.??

“When we really look at what is human and real about this — which they are trying to distract us from with this rhetoric — we find that there are people who are suffering, who just want to have options, that there are kids who are afraid for what their lives are going to be, that there are parents who are just trying to safeguard their children’s health, that there are doctors who want to take care of their patients, and all of them are being set aside in favor of these silly scare tactics,” Blankenship said. “And they know better.”

Such surgeries for minors would violate the standard of care followed by leading medical organizations like the American Medical Association, said Emma Curtis, a trans Kentucky woman who has testified against legislation like SB 150 this session.?

“Nobody in Kentucky — and believe me, I’ve been at the Capitol pretty much every day this session — nobody I have met the entire time has advocated for genital surgeries on minors,” Curtis said. “It’s just not a thing that’s happening and it’s not a thing that we want to happen.”

Cameron and Craft are two of 12 Republicans vying for their party’s nomination in the May 16 primary.?

The Republican Party of Kentucky accused Beshear of supporting “life-altering sex change surgery” in its statement on the veto.

“Most people agree that you need to be a certain age before participating in certain activities, like consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes,” RPK spokesman Sean Southard said. “Not Andy Beshear. Andy Beshear thinks it’s okay for children to have access to life-altering sex change surgery and drugs before they turn 18. Today, he revealed how radical he truly is. Is Andy Beshear the Governor of Kentucky or California? Despite years of attempting to look like a moderate, he has shown that he will never stand up to the special left-wing interests that bankroll his campaign.”?

The Kentucky Democratic Party responded that the bill Beshear vetoed “pander(s) to the extremes of the Kentucky Republican Party.”?

“If it becomes law, this bill will harm children. This bill prohibits parents from making healthcare choices that are in the best interest of their child’s well-being. There is an overwhelming amount of data that shows this will lead to more suicides among Kentucky kids,” Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge said in a statement. “It is cruel and wrong and the Kentucky GOP, in their statement today, made it clear that they passed this bill to try to win an election. In vetoing this legislation, Governor Beshear is doing what he has always done: looking out for Kentucky children and families, and saving Kentucky lives.”

Effect of rhetoric on trans Kentuckians

Trans people have been visible for a short time, Blankenship said, so she does not think voters have made up their minds on gender-affirming care yet or the trans community at large. An example of that is the variety of polling on the topic and how questions are phrased.?

“The voters’ attitude can be influenced dramatically. And so what I find in my personal dealings is that most people are very open to learning and that their minds are not set on this topic. I think that that’s not good for those that are supporting policy that hurts kids, hurts families and hurts doctors.”

Even if bills like SB 150 do not become law, they have a “catastrophic effect” on the lives of trans adults and youth in Kentucky, Curtis said.?

“For folks who don’t know a trans person, it’s really easy for them to fall prey to a lot of these false expectations, these false understandings and outright lies about who we are and how we exist and what medical care we seek out,” Curtis said. “It’s extremely disappointing to see this level of willing ignorance and intentional misinformation from our legislators.”

Gov. Andy Beshear spoke to the fairness rally in the Capitol Rotunda on Feb. 16. (Kentucky Lantern by Sarah Ladd)

Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday vetoed a bill that would, among other things, ban gender-affirming care for Kentucky’s transgender minors.?

The legislation, Senate Bill 150, was passed by the Kentucky legislature in mid-March.?

Beshear’s veto was not surprising – in 2020 he became the first sitting Kentucky governor to attend an LGBTQ+ fairness rally. And, on the day the legislature passed Senate Bill 150, Beshear said he believed transition and other medical decisions for transgender youth should be between them and their parents.?

The legislature that passed the bill has the option to override his veto.?

Explaining his veto, Beshear said the bill “allows too much government interference in personal healthcare issues and rips away the freedom of parents to make medical decisions for their children.”?

It also, Beshear said, “turns educators and administrators into investigators” who would “question parents and families about how students behave and/or refer to themselves and others.”?

SB150 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.” ?The bill also places new restrictions on sex education in public schools.

Sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, has said the measure protects the rights of parents.

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

Beshear cited high rates of suicidality among Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ youth in his veto explanation.?

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, also reported in 2022 that 59% of Kentucky’s transgender and nonbinary kids considered suicide, and 24% tried to take their own lives.?

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

“Improving access to gender-affirming care,” Beshear said, “is an important means of improving health outcomes for the transgender population.”?

Pikeville Pride put on a show in 2019. (Photo provided)

After at least a dozen threats, a Prestonsburg drag show fundraiser originally scheduled for Saturday has been canceled.?

Organizer Kyle May said the wave of threats came after he spoke with a local news outlet to promote the fundraiser, which he estimated could have raised around $3,000.?

Called “Come As You Are,” the show was to feature drag performers Corabelle Bundy Jolie, Amber Nicole, Tiara Love and Viktor Diamond who planned to discuss their own journeys toward self-acceptance and lip sync to songs about the value of appreciating one’s self.

Money raised at the event would have gone toward a gender-affirming resource bank, which would have provided clothing, binders, hygiene products and makeup to people in need, May said.?

May, who also runs Lexington’s Open Doors Counseling, planned to incorporate mental health services as well.?

But on Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday, May and the event received at least 12 comments and messages on social media that were “overwhelmingly threatening.”?

“They were starting to talk about … bringing guns and coming armed,” he said. “Then there (were) groups being created to organize, to protest and show up with loaded guns. To me, the threats started becoming more and more legitimate.”?

The local police were willing to come out and help protect people, he said, but he didn’t want to risk anyone being in danger.?

In a social media post about the cancellation, Pikeville Pride said the new and “extremist behavior” is “directly tied to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation across the country.”?

“Many of our own representatives here in the commonwealth want to silence us and erase our existence,” Pikeville Pride’s statement said. “However, we won’t be silenced.”?

May also said he believes the threats came now because of the session.

“I believe it’s because that’s a recent activity in Frankfort with the attempts to pass the anti-LGBTQ legislation,” he said. “I think it’s given people courage and they’re feeling brave. And I believe that they think that this is going to be okay and tolerated now.”?

Drag shows were a focus of this legislative session. A bill advanced that would criminalize “sexually explicit” drag shows on public land or around minors.?

Proponents of the measure said they wanted to protect children, while opponents said such a law could harm the larger LGBTQ+ community.?

That bill wasn’t passed before the Senate and House recessed for the veto period. It could still pass on the final two days of the session – at the end of March. Gov. Andy Beshear could still veto it at that point, but the legislature couldn’t override him.?

Another widely criticized bill passed and awaits Beshear’s signature or veto. It would ban gender affirming care for minors and say transgender children can’t use the bathroom of their choice at school, among other things.?

“What I think they’re trying to do is eradicate the LGBT community,” May said. “We will not be eradicated.”?

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.?

Education Commissioner Jason Glass addressed the House Education Committee earlier this year. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by McKenna Horsley)

The day after Kentucky lawmakers rapidly changed and passed a bill to include measures banning gender-affirming care for minors, the state’s top education official decried the “sweeping and harmful” legislation.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass said the latest version of Senate Bill 150 “contains provisions that will put our young people at risk, have the government interfere with decisions between doctors, patients and families and puts Kentucky at the front of a series of similar hateful, ignorant and shameful efforts around the country.”

In the fall, the Kentucky Department of Education will host a “summit in support of LGBTQIA+ people and youth,” Glass said. More details about the event will come later.

Glass chided the legislature for failing to address “real issues impacting our schools” and expending “its time and energy on this stitched-together bill, taking aim directly at LGBTQIA+ people.”

Glass also addressed Kentuckians who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, saying that they are seen and loved.

“In times like these, we all must find the courage to steady ourselves and to be as brave as we can,” the commissioner said.?

Senate Bill 150 was originally introduced by the running mate of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft, Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, to ban any Education Department guidance against misgendering trans students.

Republican lawmakers have criticized Glass because of the guidance throughout this legislative session. Another bill, Senate Bill 107, that would subject the education commissioner to confirmation by the Senate has been approved by both the House and Senate.?

In a hastily-called House Education Committee on Thursday afternoon, a new version of the bill added parts from House Bill 470, which among other things banned gender-affirming care for minors.?

Within a few hours, the House approved the new version of Senate Bill 150 and the Senate concurred.??

The last-ditch House maneuver revived the prohibitions on health care for transgender youth after the Senate on Wednesday night adopted a floor amendment from Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, overhauling House Bill 470. The Senate also voted to put the bill on its clerk’s desk, creating doubts about its passage in that chamber.?

Sen. Karen Berg

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 — The Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation Thursday night that would, among other things, ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.?

The vote came after language from the controversial House Bill 470 was slipped into another bill, Senate Bill 150.

As the vote hit the pass threshold around 6 p.m., Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, reached for a tissue to wipe tears from her eyes.?

Henry Berg-Bousseau, a trans man and Berg’s son, died by suicide in December and advocated for LGBTQ+ rights. She has spoken in committees and on the floor against bills targeting the LGBTQ community all session.?

The anti-trans legislation had surprisingly stalled in the Senate Wednesday night when Republican Danny Carroll, R-Benton, successfully proposed an amendment that significantly scaled back restrictions on transgender health care contained in the original bill. A maneuver in the House Thursday brought the harsher restrictions and penalties on medical professionals back to the Senate for a vote, and this time Republicans with the exception of Carroll were united? behind it.?

Before SB 150 passed, Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong made an unsuccessful motion to instead take up Carroll’s pared-down version of House Bill 470 that the body voted to lay on the clerk’s desk Wednesday night.?

Republicans pushed for the restrictions despite outcries and protest from physicians, mental health professionals, parents and transgender Kentuckians who testified in front of multiple committees.?

The final Senate vote was 30-7. When the bill passed, people in the gallery yelled at legislators and were removed.?

“Jesus was wearing drag,” one said. Another cried: “You’re all murderers.”?

The bill will now go to Gov. Andy Beshear who is expected to veto it. At his weekly press conference in the Capitol, he said he believes decisions about the transition of minors should be between parents and their kids.?

“I believe the medical decisions for all of our youth, including our transgender youth, ought to be made by their families,” said Beshear.?

He also said “we owe it to” Berg to not take up this issue at this time.?

“I wish everybody would respect her and her loss enough not to be doing this either at all or during this session,” Beshear said.??

Other legislators opposed to the legislation – and community advocates – have pointed to a February Mason-Dixon poll that showed 71% of Kentucky registered voters don’t want lawmakers making the decisions about trans youth’s health care.?

Interviewers polled 625 voters this year for the poll. Of those polled, 21% — about one in five — Kentuckians did support legislation like HB 470, with 8% undecided, the Fairness Campaign previously reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky quickly condemned SB150 as the “worst anti-trans bill in the nation.”

“This dangerous bill and others like it across the country are nothing more than a desperate attempt to score political points by targeting people who simply want to live their lives,” Amber Duke, interim executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. “True democracy requires meaningful and informed debate and engagement from the public. The shameful process on display in the Kentucky House undermines the public trust in government.”

After?Thursday’s vote Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said “the genesis of this measure springs from a national agenda of fearmongering.”

“This final measure transforms the Republican super-majority caucuses from a historic commitment of small government and personal liberty into a party pushing an agenda of a wildly expanded government intrusion,” said Brooks. “It means that in Kentucky, neither medical practices nor deeply personal decisions around sexuality and gender-identification are the purviews of doctors and parents but instead are under the ever-watchful eye of state government.”

How did 470 and 150 join??

With time running out in this session, House Republicans added the language of HB470 to SB150 in an effort to revive anti-trans legislation that had stalled in the Senate.

In a hastily called committee meeting, provisions restricting health care for trans youth were grafted onto Senate Bill 150, described by sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, as a “parents rights” measure, which imposes new anti-LGBTQ restrictions on public schools.?

The House approved the hybrid bill? 75-22.?

Senate Bill 150 initially garnered pushback for language that prohibited school districts from punishing school staff if they misgendered a student. Senator Max Wise, the primary sponsor, has framed the bill as about protecting the First Amendment rights of school staff and said the bill didn’t prevent school staff from using a student’s correct pronouns.?

The Senate passed SB 150 last month despite pleas from Democrats and opponents of the bill who said it would harm vulnerable children. Republicans said the legislation was broadly needed to strengthen parental rights.?

But the bill expanded broadly in scope in a committee meeting that caught many off guard, drawing harsh criticism from Democrats that the additional language was a last-ditch effort to pass such provisions that had stalled in the state Senate and doing so in an anti-transparent manner.?

“The thing is that if you’re right, if the legislation is right, then let’s do it in the light of day, not under the cover of darkness,” said Rep. George Brown Jr., D-Lexington on the House floor. “Not in secrecy.”?

What happened in the House??

When Senate Bill 150 reached the floor Thursday, House Democrats stalled for more than an hour while giving floor speeches against the measure. Some cried, some spoke directly to LGBTQ youth and told them they are “perfect” the way they are.?

Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, gave an impassioned speech in which she said: “How dare you use my God for things against his people?”?

“If you don’t want to have an abortion, don’t have one. If you don’t want to bother with trans kids, don’t,” said Stevenson. “But how dare you tell other people, other parents that bear the responsibility for their children, what they must do according to your wishes and God’s wishes?”?

The newly changed SB 150 passed the House by a vote of 75-22 and was sent to the Senate. Two Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the legislation.?

But not before Democrats criticized the speed with which the bill was changed and what they called “hate” toward transgender youth.?

“You cannot erase a group of people,” said Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville. “These children will be transgender. They may not get puberty blockers to allow them to have a more fulfilling adulthood, but they will be transgender.”?

Rep. and Speaker Pro Tempore David Meade, R-Stanford, carried the bill on the House floor for Wise.?

He said electoral repercussions of this legislation didn’t matter because he believed it’s “the right thing to do.”?

“If we’re going to protect children,” Meade said, “we need to ensure that surgery or drugs that completely alter their life and alter their body is not something we should be allowing them until they’re adults and can choose that for themselves.”?

Meade mentioned a “statewide broadcast poll” that he says showed Independents, Republicans and moderate Democrats supported such legislation.?

He declined to say where it came from when a Lantern reporter asked him about it, except to say it was from a private organization.?

Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, the first openly LGBTQ representative, called the bill “disrespectful.”?

And, she said: it’s “very harmful and very sickening.”?

“I’ve heard individuals say that they have been oppressed,” Herron said. “How dare you — as a Black, queer masculine-presenting woman — how dare you use the word ‘oppression.’ Not only myself, but other LGBTQ individuals in this state have been impacted and continue to be impacted by the ridiculousness of the words that have been coming out of this body.”

What did the Senators say??

The Senate talked about SB150 for less than an hour before passing it – easily.?

Carroll voted against the bill, condemning the divisiveness around the topic.?

“Why can’t we trust our doctors, as we do for every other issue, to guide us through these things?” asked Carroll. “When are we going to get past all of this extremist, all the radicalism?”?

Carroll successfully narrowed the scope of HB 470 this week via a floor amendment that passed 19-17 Wednesday. His version proposed giving parents more leeway than the original bill to make healthcare decisions for their transgender children.?

Parents or guardians could provide written consent for their trans children to get nonsurgical care, like reversible puberty blockers, under Carroll’s version.?

LGBTQ+ community organizations said Carroll’s revision of the bill was an improvement, but still “heinous.”?

“Can I say that if we allowed the (puberty) blockers to be prescribed and utilized,? would it…save hundreds, thousands of lives? I can’t say that. But you know what? If it saved one kid…one…what does it hurt?” Carroll asked. “I don’t understand.”?

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, voted for SB150 despite saying, while explaining his vote, “I’m not crazy about this bill.”

But he reiterated his position that he doesn’t “agree with transition” and “I don’t understand it.”?

Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, called it hypocritical for anyone who supports abortion access to condemn the bill.?

Meanwhile, Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said he believes the body “can do better” and said he had “rage in my body” over the issue.?

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-, said Kentucky is joining the “don’t say gay” movement and creating “bathroom police.”?

In her testimony, Berg said the body is “failing miserably” when it comes to this issue.??

“It’s not that you haven’t had time to learn,” she said. “My child came up here 10 years ago. You had time to understand the science. You had time to get yourself educated on this subject. This is absolute, willful, intentional hate – hate for a small group of people that are the weakest and the most vulnerable among us.”?

Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville, spoke against the amended SB 150 in committee. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — With time running out in this session, House Republicans tried on Thursday to revive anti-trans legislation that has stalled in the Senate.

In a hastily called committee meeting, provisions restricting health care for trans youth were grafted onto Senate Bill 150, described by sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, as a “parents rights” measure, which imposes new anti-LGBTQ restrictions on public schools.?

The House approved the hybrid bill ?75-22. But its fate is uncertain in the Senate where Republicans oppose some of its elements as too extreme. ?

Thursday is the last scheduled legislative day before lawmakers break for a 10-day veto period. They are scheduled to return to Frankfort March 29- 30. Lawmakers could not override any gubernatorial vetoes on bills passed March 29-30.

Although the outcome was never in doubt given House Republicans’ supermajority, House Democrats mounted angry and emotional opposition to the amended bill, blasting Republicans for spending so much time debating legislation targeting less than 1% of the population.

Many of the Republicans left the chamber as the Democrats spoke, leaving Speaker Pro Tem David Meade, R-Stanford,? to defend what had become a wide-ranging measure.

Democrats criticized the hastily called committee meeting which began before some Democrats arrived. “The thing is that if you’re right, if the legislation is right, then let’s do it in the light of day, not under the cover of darkness. Not in secrecy,” said Rep. George Brown Jr., D-Lexington, on the House floor.?

“You cannot erase a group of people,” said Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville. “These children will be transgender. They may not get puberty blockers to allow them to have a more fulfilling adulthood, but they will be transgender.”?

Meade insisted the measure is meant to protect children. “If we’re going to protect children we need to ensure that surgery or drugs that completely alter their life and alter their body is not something we should be allowing them until they’re adults and can choose that for themselves,” Meade said.?

Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, said, “For all these young ladies and these young adults and these young girls — they do not want boys in the girls bathrooms.”

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, presents a floor amendment to House Bill 470, which senators approved in a narrow vote. (Photo for the Kentucky Lantern by McKenna Horsley)

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Senate narrowly voted to postpone consideration of House Bill 470 — after ?adopting a floor amendment that loosened the controversial bill’s health-care restrictions on trans youth.

The 19-17 vote came at 9:34 p.m. Wednesday after two breaks for closed-door Republican caucuses.??

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, proposed cutting about 30 pages of the original bill, including harsh penalties against medical professionals, and replacing that language with:?

• No person shall provide surgical medical treatment to a child or nonsurgical medical treatment to a child with “gender dysphoria without the written, notarized consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.”?
• Only children who have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria can receive nonsurgical medical treatment and it must be from a “licensed physician who is appropriately trained and experienced in providing nonsurgical medical treatments for children with gender dysphoria in collaboration with a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.”?

His amendment passed 19-17, while others were not successful.?

Several floor amendments were withdrawn, including ones that would have defined “health facility” and let parents or guardians sue health care providers within 30 years after the minor in question turns 18.?

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, voted for Carroll’s amendment but said in explaining his vote that it merely made “a bad bill better.”?

Senate President Robert Stivers said that the Senate could vote Thursday to take up House Bill 470 again.

Asked about the bill’s future, Stivers said he didn’t know.

“There was a lot of questions and discussions, multiple caucuses about what various amendments meant and impact to the bill,” he said. “I think there was a lack of knowledge as to what all the amendments of the subject matter meant. This is not the easiest of subject matter topics.”?

Rebecca Blankenship, who runs Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, told the Kentucky Lantern that Carroll’s adjustments to the bill were a “small mercy” but that the bill is “still heinous” for Kentucky’s trans youth.?

But “the fact that (Carroll) stepped up for us,” Blankenship added, “means more than he could ever know.”?

The bill also includes provisions restricting what public schools could teach about sexuality. It also says schools may, after public comment, adopt policies related to who can use what bathrooms at school.

The evolution of 470?

In its first iteration, House Bill 470, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, was considered one of the worst bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the nation.

In addition to proposing a ban on gender affirming care for minors, it included penalties for mental health professionals as well as physicians who provided care to trans minors.?

A committee changed the bill, exempting mental health professionals from the penalties. That version still banned gender affirming care for all minors and allowed lawsuits against medical providers for a 30-year window, though.?

That version passed the House.?

McKenna Horsley contributed.?

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, is sponsoring an overhaul of House Bill 470. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A Republican senator proposed striking much of anti-trans House Bill 470 after Senate Republicans caucused behind closed doors for three hours Tuesday.

A floor amendment filed around 8 p.m. Tuesday narrows the prohibitions in HB 470 and would give parents more leeway than the original bill to make health care decisions for their transgender children.

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, said Tuesday morning in a committee meeting that he hated the tone of HB 470, a measure controversial even among some Republicans that proposed banning gender affirming care for minors and penalizing doctors who provide it.?

Roughly ten hours later Carroll filed a floor amendment that would replace much of the bill – 30 pages worth – and instead state:?

• No person shall provide surgical medical treatment to a child or nonsurgical medical treatment to a child with “gender dysphoria without the written, notarized consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.”?
• Only children who have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria can receive nonsurgical medical treatment and it must be from a “licensed physician who is appropriately trained and experienced in providing nonsurgical medical treatments for children with gender dysphoria in collaboration with a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.”?

“Appropriate” nonsurgical care, per the floor amendment, can include reversible puberty blockers but may not include “cross sex hormones” like testosterone and estrogen.?

Nonsurgical treatment must “meet evidence-based medical standards of care” and include mental health services that “address a person’s sex dysphoria but that do not promote gender transition.”?

Other floor amendments filed?

A second floor amendment, filed by Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, says that “aggrieved” parents or guardians can sue within 30 years.?

A third amendment proposes changing the title of the bill from “AN ACT relating to the protection of children” to “AN ACT relating to children and declaring an emergency.”?

And, finally, Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, proposed an addition that would define what a health care facility is.

Republican leaders kept the floor open which allowed the filing of three more floor amendments to HB 470 before Senate President Robert Stivers gaveled the session to an end at 9:55 p.m. Tuesday.

HB 470 zoomed out of the House on March 2, receiving a committee hearing and floor vote within hours of each other as cries of protest filled the Capitol.

The bill that emerged from the House could result in health care professionals losing their licenses, and, when applicable, public funding if they provide “gender transition services” to people under 18 years old. The bill describes such care as “unethical and unprofessional” and the providers as “unfit to perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of his or her position or occupation.”

Voting against the measure in the House were Republican Reps. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, Kim Banta,?R-Ft. Mitchell and?Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood.?The bill cleared the House in a 75-22 vote.

Former state Rep. Jerry Miller speaks against HB470. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

This story mentions suicide. 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 — State Rep. Jerry Miller retired from the Kentucky legislature in 2022 and “never really wanted to come back to Frankfort — unless it was to go to Buffalo Trace,” he quipped to Senate committee members Tuesday morning.?

But he came anyway to testify against House Bill 470, a sweeping anti-transgender measure that later passed the Senate Families and Children Committee 6-3, with one Republican and two Democrats voting against it.?

“When I realized (HB470) had a real chance of passing, even though it restricts parents’ rights, it now became personal because my seven-year-old grandchild would be directly affected by it,” said Miller, a Louisville Republican.?

HB 470, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, proposes banning gender affirming care for minors, including testosterone, estrogen, hysterectomies and vasectomies. There is an exception clause for people who are born intersex.?

Under HB 470, health care professionals could lose their licenses, and, when applicable, public funding if they provide “gender transition services” to people under 18 years old.?

The bill describes such care as “unethical and unprofessional” and the providers as “unfit to perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of his or her position or occupation.” People can also sue providers up to 30 years after providing care.?

It passed the House in early March. Community advocates, psychologists and physicians previously testified that the bill would harm LBGTQ youth and could result in suicides.?

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, reported?in 2022 that 59% of Kentucky’s transgender and nonbinary kids considered suicide, and 24% tried to take their own lives.?

“As a grandfather of two girls, I was thrilled to learn my daughter was pregnant with a boy,” Miller said in his testimony. “I thought of all the things we would do together, like playing ball. That’s just not been my reality.”?

Correcting himself on his transgender grandchild’s pronouns throughout the testimony, he said that “regardless of anything, I’m going to love my grandchild and fight for what I think is best” for her.?

Behind him, audience members nodded in approval.?

“Parental rights” additions to HB 470?

The latest version of HB 470 includes new “parental rights” language to say:

• Students in grade five and below will not receive instruction about human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases. Students in sixth grade and above must have a parent’s consent to receive such instruction.?
• Schools may, after public comment, adopt policies related to who can use what bathrooms at school. Schools, that portion of the bill says, “have a duty to protect the dignity, health, welfare, and privacy rights of students in their care.”

Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, sponsored Senate Bill 150, which would say neither the Kentucky Department of Education or the Kentucky Board of Education could issue guidance about students; pronouns, among other things — language that 470 has now absorbed.?

“Parents are demanding and expecting that we have policies in place at the school board level to handle situations of boys and girls in restrooms and locker rooms and in shower rooms,” Wise said in committee Tuesday about his contributions to HB 470.?

Parents, he said, “have that expectation of privacy and also an expectation of safety.”?

A February Mason-Dixon poll showed 71% of Kentucky registered voters don’t want lawmakers making the decisions about trans youth’s health care. Interviewers polled 625 voters this year for the poll.

Of those polled, 21% — about one in five — Kentuckians did support legislation like HB 470, with 8% undecided, the Fairness Campaign previously reported.

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, testified against HB 470 as well, but ran out of time before she was able to finish her story about how her child came out as trans.?Henry Berg-Bousseau died by suicide in December and advocated for LGBTQ+ rights.

“I don’t like the bill.”?

Sens. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, and Robin L. Webb, D-Grayson voted against 470 in committee.?

Committee Chair Danny Carroll, R-Benton, voted yes but with this caveat: “I don’t like the bill. I hate the tone of the bill.”?

Carroll is working on “some changes” to the language, he said, and: “I think we could have accomplished what we needed to accomplish without going so far.”?

Harper Angel, in explaining her no vote, said the legislation is “the largest attempt at government overriding (the) will of our people, our children, our parents that I’ve ever seen in the last 20 years that I’ve been here.”?

“It is going to have devastating results and it will not have my name attached to it,” she added.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, voted yes in committee but said he would not vote in favor of the bill on the floor without changes.?

“I don’t like how far this bill goes,” Westerfield said, adding he doesn’t believe gender affirming surgeries or puberty blockers are appropriate for children. Furthermore, he said: “I don’t believe in transitioning. I don’t think that’s good, I don’t think it’s healthy. I think it goes against what God created.”?

But, he said, the language in the bill is too broad. “That liability is huge,” he said. “I think it’s overly hostile to providers.”?

Meredith also took issue with harsh punishment for providers who offer care, calling license revoking “a bridge too far.”?

“Throughout this legislative session,” said Meredith, “we have promoted bills to support parents’ rights. And I still think that’s where this should lie.”?

This story may update.?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor says she realized Kentucky teachers lack maternity leave through her daughter-in-law. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — After a floor debate spiked with references to foot fetishes and sadomasochistic bondage attire, the Kentucky Senate on Friday approved a bill aimed at limiting venues for some drag shows.

Senate Bill 115 would criminalize “sexually explicit” drag performances by “male or female impersonators” on publicly-owned land or in front of children. It passed the Senate with 26 yes votes, 6 no votes and one pass.?

Opponents previously testified in committee that it would harm the LGBTQ+ and drag community.?

Primary sponsor ??Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, said on the floor her intent in filing the bill “is to restrict performances of an adult nature, as defined in this legislation, to adults.”?

The bill defines that as “a performance involving male or female impersonators, who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, regardless of whether or not performed for consideration.”?

The American Psychological Association says prurient interest refers to “in obscenity law, a morbid, degrading, or excessive interest in sexual matters.”?

Those who violate the rules in the bill would be subject to misdemeanors the first two violations and felonies on the third and thereafter. The bill may proceed to the House.?

An amendment proposed by Minority Caucus Chair Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, would have added language to say:?

“Nothing in this section shall preclude participants in a public performance offered by an established adult theatre, children’s theatre, or dance studio or program from portraying a gender different from the participant’s gender at birth.”?

Thomas proposed another amendment that said: “Conduct consisting solely of touching, embracing, or kissing shall not constitute a sex act or sexual conduct.”?

Both failed.?

Before the failure, though, Thomas said members of the theater community had expressed concerns to him about girls needing to play male roles in plays.?

“What happens more often than not,” said Thomas, “is that you have more girls come out for performances than boys.” So, girls may play a male role “to make sure that the show goes on.”??

Tichenor acknowledged that point.?

“There is indeed a long history of male and female impersonators,” she said. “Before women were allowed to perform in theatrical productions men would play the roles of women.”?

After referring to Shakespeare and Robin Williams’ “masterful” performance as Mrs. Doubtfire, Tichenor added: “This bill is not in any way addressing those types of performances. What it is addressing are the performances happening in cities and towns across Kentucky that have been advertised as family friendly, but have indeed been performances of an adult nature.”?

Senators cite foot fetishes and sadomasochistic bondage attire on the floor

Those who spoke against the bill felt that it was an overstep to police what appeals to “prurient” interests.?

“More men find feet sexually interesting than they do men dressed up as women, or women dressed up as men,” Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said on the floor. “Number two, believe it or not, guys, shoes, stiletto heels. Do we outlaw those in this country? Because some people find them interesting.”?

Later, she asked Tichenor if she had ever attended a drag show, and if that show was in Kentucky. When Tichenor said yes to both questions, Berg asked her: “Did you find that sexually arousing?”

Damon Thayer, the Senate majority floor leader, ruled her out of order and said: “This line of questioning is outside the bounds of decorum in this chamber.” And: “I believe this line of questioning has gone beyond the bizarre.”?

Berg withdrew that question.?

Since filing her bill, Tichenor said, “I’ve received many stories of families who have stumbled upon a performance at a public park or public venue or in going to a restaurant and being met with performers and very little attire, some even wearing sadomasochistic bondage attire, yet this is now for some reason, being normalized and marketed to children.”?

Others who spoke against the bill specifically said they felt it targets the LGBTQ+ community.?

“This body,” said Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, “cannot force someone out of existence.”?

Drag performer Poly Tics testified last year before a Kentucky Senate committee that was considering a bill that would have placed new restrictions on drag shows. The bill died. (Screenshot of KET livestream)

FRANKFORT — A Kentucky bill that would criminalize “sexually explicit” performances by “male or female impersonators” on publicly-owned land or in front of children passed a Senate committee Thursday.

Members of the? Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 115, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield.

A chant of “shame, shame, shame” echoed in the room upon the passage.

Those who violate the rules in the bill would be subject to misdemeanors the first two violations and felonies on the third and thereafter.

A business that “knowingly allows or hosts an adult performance” with minors present can lose their liquor or business licenses under the bill.

“This bill is not anti-LGBTQ,” Tichenor said while presenting her bill. “This bill is pro-children.”

Not all drag performances will meet her definition of “sexually explicit,” Tichenor said, “but some do meet that definition.”

“The intent of SB 115,” she said, “is to keep sexual performances away from children.”

Opponents of the bill testified that it would harm the LGBTQ+ community.

Kate Miller, the advocacy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the latest version of the bill is better than its predecessor, but she still has concerns.

“Our concern remains that this will include some censorship from the government that is not in compliance with our First Amendment protected rights,” she said.

?“And in particular, that the expression – not only of individuals who are drag performers – will be undermined, but the individuals who are trans will be stopped from being able to perform and include individuals who are not trans but who might be performing in ways that undermine your concepts of gender.”

An earlier version of the bill said “adult” businesses like strip clubs couldn’t be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, residences, child care facilities and other locations. That was removed in the committee substitute version of the legislation.

Drag performer Poly Tics quoted a Bible verse in testimony before the committee: “Do unto the least of these as you have done unto me.”

“Ask yourself,” she said, “what are you doing unto the least of these? And would you do this to Jesus that you so love and worship?”

“This bill not only compromises, or asks me to explain, my humanity, but it also brings into question my livelihood,” Tics testified. “As a drag performer who depends on drag shows and drag performances for income, this bill not only tells me that I am not really a human worthy of rights, but I’m also not worthy to work and I’m not deserving of an ability to make money.”

Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, blamed “bad actors” for performing in a way that “doesn’t help advance the cause.”

“There’s no hate in my heart for any of you out there,” he said before voting in favor of the legislation. “I appreciate the level of professionalism a lot of people have – and that it is art.”

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

This story mentions suicide.?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 — Amid protesters’ shouts in the hallways and despite pleas from mental health advocates, the Kentucky House on Thursday passed a bill that would ban access to gender-affirming care for youth.?

Legislators passed anti-trans House Bill 470 by a 75-22 vote. Several Republicans joined the “no” votes – Reps. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, Kim Banta,?R-Ft. Mitchell and?Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood.?

The two-hour debate unfolded as protestors’ shouts and cries filled the Capitol.

“Y’all should be ashamed,” someone cried from the gallery after the vote. Meanwhile, the crowd outside the doors chanted, “vote them out.”?

The latest version of the bill could result in health care professionals losing their licenses, and, when applicable, public funding if they provide “gender transition services” to people under 18 years old. The bill describes such care as “unethical and unprofessional” and the providers as “unfit to perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of his or her position or occupation.”?

“Gender transition services” include testosterone, estrogen, hysterectomies and vasectomies, according to the bill. There is an exception clause for people who are born intersex.?

Under an earlier version of HB470, therapists who were confirmed to have provided “gender transition services” to someone younger than 18 could have lost their licenses. That was removed in a later version, and many, who had warned that it would deprive transgender youngsters of mental health care, praised that update.?

The House vote came immediately after the bill cleared a special-called judiciary committee meeting at noon.?

The crowd gathered outside the committee room burst into chants of “shame, shame, shame” as 14 members voted to advance the bill. Seven committee members – representing both parties – voted against the legislation that has been widely condemned and called harmful for transgender youth.?

In addition to the protesters who condemned the bill in-person Thursday, 112 organizations sent a letter to lawmakers hours before the vote urging them to reject the bill.?

Those who signed included the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, the Kentucky Nurses Association, Louisville NAACP Youth Council, the Alliance for Pediatric Behavioral and Mental Health of Kentucky and many others.??

“I will not be made to feel small”?

Ten people testified against the bill in the 30 minutes allotted by the committee. More had signed up to do so.?

Those who testified included transgender people, parents, doctors and social workers.?

Miles Joyner, a licensed clinical social worker, told legislators that, as a transgender man, “I will not be crushed. And I will not be made to feel small by any of this anti-trans political rhetoric.”?

He added: “We are not villains. We are not predators. We are human beings deserving of dignity and respect.”?

“As a social worker, I am ethically bound to provide honest, competent and evidence-based care,” said Joyner, who said he treats both children and adults.?

The bill, he testified, will “encourage transphobia,” affect more than just Kentucky’s children and “make life more dangerous for all of us.”??

Christopher Bolling, a pediatrician in Northern Kentucky, called gender-affirming care “comprehensive care” that includes screenings “of all sorts.”?

Should the bill become law, Bolling said, it would make it “nearly impossible” to practice pediatric medicine in Kentucky.

“Children rely on the adults in their lives — from parents and teachers to coaches to Sunday school teachers – to usher them through their development,” testified Laurie Grimes, a Louisville child psychologist. “It works out well unless you’re trans. Trans children will be expected to weather some of the most challenging identity issues alone because many of the adults in their lives may soon face severe sanctions for helping them.”?

Grimes, who spoke on behalf of the Kentucky Psychological Association, said the legislation is a matter of denying people’s existence.?

“At the root of this legislation is the belief that ‘trans’ is not a real thing,” said Grimes. “It’s no surprise that harmful legislation emerges if the very existence of the target constituency is denied.”?

Two doctors from out of state testified over Zoom in support of the bill.?

Dr. Andre Van Mol with the Council on Adolescent Sexuality for the American College of Pediatricians said “transition affirming medical interventions actually imperil at risk and gender dysphoric youth.”?

Another physician, Dr. Roger Hiatt, said “the question of gender is answered at conception. Opinions to the contrary are simply misinformation.” Hiatt called “a change in biological sex” an “impossible dream.”?

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, said on the House floor she wants to “to protect children in Kentucky from irreparable damage.”?

“I was a trans kid”

In committee, Luka Hein opened testimony with: “I was a trans kid.”?

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.?

Hein said “actual help, not drugs and surgery” was needed.?

“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 and my breasts are gone. I feel completely abandoned by the medical professionals that did this to me.”?

Mason Chernosky, a transgender social worker from Lexington, was outside the committee room as the meeting began.?

His personal and professional experience, he told the Lantern, is that gender-affirming care saves lives.?

“We’re all out here because we don’t think the legislature should have the right to make medical decisions, that these decisions are … between doctors and patients and parents,”? Chernosky said. “The government does not need to be involved.”??

It wasn’t his first time at the Capitol this session. Chernosky testified against Senate Bill 150 last month. With multiple bills filed this legislative session that target rights of LGBTQ community members, he said, it feels like “a sign that legislators are trying to attack our community however they can.”

“It is an unprecedented attack not just on LGBTQ Kentuckians,” he said, “but on our democratic process.”?

Bipartisan “grave concerns”

Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said both on the House floor and in committee that she had “grave concerns” about the legislation.?

She took issue with penalties health care workers could face, saying it “undermines everything we’ve done” to bolster that particular workforce. The bill says action can be brought against a provider within a 30-year window for providing gender-affirming services.?

Moser called it a “shortsighted and discriminatory” bill that “sets Kentucky back decades” and takes parents’ rights away.?

Another Republican, Rep. Stephanie Dietz of Edgewood, told committee members she did not think it was a good idea “for us to pre-determine what is unethical” and bypass licensure boards.?

Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, called the bill “shameful”?and thanked Hein “for your bravery.”?

“I would never attempt to deny someone’s experience. I also think several things can be true at the same time,” she said. “Being a masculine-centered individual who identifies as queer, I’m letting you know that this is a very dangerous … piece of legislation.”?

In his weekly press conference, Gov. Andy Beshear called introducing anti-LGBTQ legislation “amazingly callous” given that Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, lost her transgender son shortly before this session began.?

Henry Berg-Bousseau died by suicide and advocated for LGBTQ+ rights.?

Most Kentucky voters don’t want anti-trans legislation?

A February Mason-Dixon poll showed 71% of Kentucky registered voters don’t want lawmakers making the decisions about trans youth’s healthcare. Interviewers polled 625 voters this year for the poll.?

Of those polled, 21% — about one in five — Kentuckians did support legislation like House Bill 470, with 8% undecided, the Fairness Campaign previously reported.?

Kasey Suffredini, the vice president of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project, said that bills like 470 “aim to insert politicians’ opinions into personal medical decisions go against expert medical guidance.”?

“Decisions about transgender medical care should be made between patients, their parents, and their doctors,” said Suffredini, adding the legislation would “strip trans youth of the best-practice medical care that many rely on to lead healthy, happy lives.”

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, also reported in 2022 that 59% of Kentucky’s transgender and nonbinary kids considered suicide, and 24% tried to take their own lives.?

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

Reporter McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.

A statue of frontier surgeon Eprhaim McDowell looked on as the Kentucky Fairness Rally for LGBTQ Rights drew a crowd to the Capitol Rotunda on Feb. 15. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Sarah Ladd)

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 — Despite pleas by the few Democrats in the Kentucky Senate to protect “vulnerable, marginalized children,” the supermajority of Republicans passed a controversial bill around parental rights and gender identity policies for students Thursday afternoon.

Among the provisions in Senate Bill 150, the legislation would prohibit any requirements that school staff and students use another student’s preferred pronouns and would also prohibit the Kentucky Department of Education or the Kentucky Board of Education from issuing guidance regarding the use of a student’s preferred pronouns. The department issued such guidance last year.?

Democrats and LGBTQ-rights advocates say such provisions could lead to school staff or other students misgendering and bullying LGBTQ students who request a certain set of preferred pronouns. Bill sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, has repeatedly pushed back on such criticism, saying the bill doesn’t prevent staff or students from using another student’s preferred pronouns.?

An emotional plea on the Senate floor came from Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, who gave the legislative body a choice of what she considered a? “yes” vote on the bill to mean.?

“Your vote ‘yes’ on this bill means one of two things: either you believe that trans children do not exist, or you believe that trans children do not deserve to exist. I can tell you, these children exist,” Berg said.?

Berg in her speech invoked her transgender son, Henry Berg-Bousseau, who died by suicide in December. She mentioned how he was alone when he testified against a bill in 2015, yet in present day she was able to stand by other transgender youth at a Wednesday rally for LGBTQ rights.?

“Yesterday at that rally, I was able to look to my right and see beautiful, happy faces of trans children from all over this state who will no longer be kept in the closet,” Berg said. “We care about our children. How hard is it to extend a hand and say, ‘Here, you can be safe with me?’”

In introducing the bill on the Senate floor, Wise said there had been a lot of “misinformation” about the legislation and that it doesn’t prevent school staff or students from using specific names requested to be used by a student.?

“But pronouns are different. The terms ‘he’ and ‘she’ communicate fixed facts about a person, and teachers should not be forced to violate their consciences regarding what they know to be true or not true,” Wise said.?

Wise was the only Republican who spoke in favor of the bill on the Senate floor. Berg tried to file amendments to change the bill, but such amendments were declared out of order by Republican leadership for not having been filed 24 hours in advance of the bill reaching the Senate floor.?

Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, took issue with the amendments not being considered, noting that the legislation had been changed within the past day by Wise through a committee substitute bill,? not giving enough to file floor amendments on the new bill.?

“We are supposed to be the deliberative body. That’s one reason I wanted to be here. Things like this embarrass me,” Webb said.?

Senate President Robert Stivers said the substitute version of Senate Bill 150 was made available yesterday and “would have been pretty close” to the full 24 hours necessary to file a floor amendment on the bill.?

After the vote had concluded, Berg sobbed at her desk while being comforted by others.

LGBTQ people, advocates condemn Republicans in committee

Before the bill reached the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, the Senate Education Committee again debated the issues when Wise presented the committee substitute.

The bill was sent back to the committee to reportedly make a technical change after it had passed out of the committee last week, and the legislation saw several changes through a committee substitute by Wise. Those changes included allowing parents to have access to review any well-being or health assessment before such assessments are given to students.?

Several people testified against the bill, including former Republican state Rep. Bob Heleringer of Louisville, a lobbyist for the LGBTQ-rights group the Fairness Campaign.?

“Why are we singling these people out?” Heleringer said. “How many transgender kids are there in the state that is so deserving of this kind of attention?”

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, questioned Wise in the committee about why provisions regarding the use of a student’s preferred pronouns had not been changed, saying it appeared that the bill would allow for “intimidation, harassment and or bullying of that child by adults” regarding a child’s gender identity.?

Wise responded that nothing in the bill would prevent students from requesting to use a “non-birth-conforming pronoun” or from school staff or students from addressing a student with preferred pronouns.

“It allows still for the First Amendment, for faculty, for those wishing to do so — or not. Up to them,” Wise said.?

Berg, who is not part of the Education Committee, sat next to Thomas in the chairs set up for the committee as she watched Wise and others testify.?

Chris Hartman, the executive director of the Fairness Campaign, in his testimony mentioned protesters who spoke at an LGTBQ-rights rally. He also invoked the name of Berg’s son in his words, screaming at times at the committee.?

“I know you saw our young people. Perfect, whole, divine, made in the image of God, who are terrified that you will take away their basic dignity and respect,” Hartman said. “And to do it in front of Karen Berg is a sin.”?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, responded directly to Hartman’s comments in explaining her “yes” vote on the bill, saying Hartman was accusing them of not caring about Berg.

“This is a bill about parental consent. This is a bill about making sure parents know if their kids are suicidal regarding this issue,” Tichenor said.?

Some of Senate Bill 150’s other provisions would also require school districts to notify parents of health services and mental health services related to contraception, human sexuality, and family planning and allow parents to decline such specific services.?

One Republican senator voted “no” with the two Democrats on the committee, saying that he didn’t believe all stakeholders on the issues involved were being properly heard.?

“We need to have a lot of dialogue in respect to the emotion that has been brought to this,” said Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield. “I’d like to hear a little bit more from educators and teachers in the classroom about this, and I think it’s just premature at this point in time to act on this bill.”

Meredith was the only senator not present for the vote on the Senate floor.

After the bill had passed and the committee was adjourning, Hartman walked out of the room yelling “shame” repeatedly. Jessica Bowman, a Lexington mother who has a gay daughter and testified against the bill, told the committee that they “just killed kids.”?

Bowman in an interview after the committee hearing said she wished the legislature would focus on other pressing issues instead of “targeting a very small number of kids.”?

“Senator Wise keeps commenting that it doesn’t require teachers to use the wrong pronouns, but it also still allows teachers to use the wrong pronouns, and also allows their peers to use the wrong pronouns,” Bowman said.?

McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.

Alex Lounsbury (Courtesy photo)

In many ways, Alex Lounsbury has been lucky. He knows that.

Now in his senior year at Atkins High School, a technology magnet in Winston-Salem, N.C., he’s happy, healthy and looking toward the future. But it wasn’t easy getting there.

Assigned female at birth, Alex knew he was transgender by the time he was in middle school. But he wasn’t ready to talk about it with parents, teachers and all of his friends right away. When he did come out to his family, they were supportive.

“They just wanted me to be healthy and happy,” Lounsbury told Policy Watch this week. “I know a lot of people don’t have that from their parents. I wish everyone did. They wanted me to be myself and be who I really am.”

For Lounsbury and his family, that meant transitioning. First socially: telling friends, family, teachers and administrators he was changing his name and his gender pronouns. Nobody was ready for it, he said. The school had never encountered a transgender student.

“There was bullying, even assault,” he said. “But my parents supported me. We sat down with teachers, the principal. It just took time and persistence.”

At 16, he and his family began talking with doctors about hormone replacement therapy to begin a physical transition. In a few months, he’ll take the next step — a “top surgery” to remove his breasts, which he’s been working toward slowly and deliberately for years. At every step, with the backing of his family and the knowledge and advice of his doctors, he’s felt more at home and at peace in his own body.

As he moves toward graduation this year, he’s happy the environment has changed for young trans people since he came out.

“It’s just something people understand a little better now, they know about it more,” Lounsbury said. “Teachers hand out introductory cards at the beginning of the year, asking about preferred names and pronouns. That’s really helpful. There’s more of an understanding.”

But under two new bills moving through the North Carolina General Assembly, that could all radically change.

Senate Bill 49 would, among other provisions, require teachers to notify parents if a student questions their own gender — outing many young trans people before they’re ready to tell their families, who might be hostile to their identities.

House Bill 43 would make it illegal for anyone under 18 to receive the sort of gender affirming care Lounsbury did.

Lounsbury can’t help thinking of how much more difficult his life would have been under laws such as these.

“This would have been my nightmare,” he said. “Being outed, not being able to speak my truth about who I really am in my own time, when I decided to. And to not be able to make a decision with my family and my doctors. I don’t see why it’s anybody else’s place to say, why they belong in that conversation.”

For Lounsbury and many transgender youth, the two bills offer a perplexing insight into what Republican lawmakers believe to be the place of government in family and medical decisions.

Under SB49, the so-called “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” the place of parents is paramount in any discussion of gender, sexuality and identity. Its sponsors argue the government — in this case, through teachers and school administrators — has no place in conversations about a young person’s gender identity without them.

But under HB43 parents like Lounsbury’s, who support their transgender children and follow the standard of care prescribed by doctors and myriad medical associations, would see the government intervene to prevent any steps toward transition until they are 18.

These contradictory ideas about family versus government seem to be bridged by one overarching belief, Lounsbury said: the assumption that being transgender is dangerous, something to protect children against even if their families and doctors don’t share that view.

“What they’re saying is the parents should have these conversations and make these decisions — unless they support you,” Lounsbury said. “Then the government just makes the decision it wants them to. It’s only the parents who are against it whose rights matter.”

After years of advocacy, transgender North Carolinians have finally made progress, securing hard-won legal victories?about their rights to gender-affirming health care coverage and the right to change their gender marker on government documents.

But now they are facing a backlash. More than 200 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed across the country already this year. Republicans who picked up seats in state houses are pushing through legislation and will likely use it campaign on in the next election cycle.

The certainty of a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, kept Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly from even bringing some anti-LGBTQ bills to a vote in the last legislative session. But with gains in the last election, Republicans ?again have the votes to override a veto in the Senate and need the support or absence of just one Democrat in the House to override it that chamber.

That new legislative math makes bills codifying the most conservative view of gender identity a real possibility, despite the objections of LGBTQ families and the mainstream medical community.

“It doesn’t feel like a step back, it feels like a couple of hundred steps back,” Lounsbury said. “It’s completely and utterly terrifying to know that just being myself is possibly going to become illegal in some ways.”

Doing measurable damage

For State Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham), the attacks on LGBTQ people aren’t new. One of the General Assembly’s few out LGBTQ legislators, she’s spent years promoting bills that would offer greater protections for these marginalized communities. Under a Republican majority, those bills can’t even get a hearing.

With these new bills aimed at gender identity, Morey said, GOP lawmakers are sending a very clear message.

“The damage that we’re doing by introducing these bills is that it communicates to certain young people that something is fundamentally wrong with them,” Morey said. “They’re watching, they’re listening. They’re paying attention as we’re trying to legislate their identities at a very tender time.”

This week State Rep. Vernetta Alston (D-Durham), another out legislator, sponsored a competing House bill she said will account for the rights of both parents and students — including families like hers.

Alston and her wife are also parents, she said in a press conference Tuesday. LGBTQ students and their families need to be acknowledged when lawmakers legislate gender identity and sexuality.

“Like so many parents, my number one priority in life is the health, safety and well-being of my children,” Alston said. “Instead, my Senate colleagues are debating bills like Senate Bill 49 … a bill that will harm our students, especially our LGBTQ students who will only be more vulnerable and more isolated at school if Senate Bill 49 passes.”

A Department of Health and Human Services report ?shows a 46% increase in North Carolina youth reporting a depressive episode since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly three years ago. One in five high school students seriously contemplated suicide last year, according to the report. For LGBTQ students, that number is one in two.

Medical experts point to years of studies that show legislation targeting LGBTQ youth, particularly in schools where many find support they lack at home, contributes to a rise in depression and suicidal ideation. On Wednesday a panel of doctors from Duke University who study the issue and treat LGBTQ young people spoke out against the bills now moving through the legislature.

“There is a high likelihood both these bills … would have reverberating impacts on the health of LGBTQ+ children and adults throughout North Carolina,” Dr. Sarah Wilson, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and co-lead of the Duke Sexual and Gender Minority Health Program.

That’s clear when studying the aftermath of HB2, Wilson said. The 2016 law excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from statewide nondiscrimination protections. That legislation caused a national firestorm, with protests and boycotts leading to a partial repeal.

For LGBTQ people who lived through having their identities and rights debated and assailed daily throughout that controversy, the effects were devastating. Wilson pointed to a two-year study in HB2’s wake, highlighting a number of alarming trends.

“In North Carolina after HB2 … we saw gender identity-motivated hate crimes actually increased in the state,” Wilson said. “So there can be these larger cultural effects of the legislation that can adversely affect LBTBQ+ individuals by normalizing stigma. Where there is stigma, oftentimes there is increased violence.”

During the HB2 controversy and its aftermath, state lawmakers promoted right-wing groups that opposed same-sex marriage while rejecting the medical mainstream conclusions of the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Pediatrics. That came at a cost, Wilson said.

“There are downstream effects of that increased exposure to stigma, violence and hate crimes where North Carolinians who are LGBTQ+ reported feeling increased depression and anxiety,” Wilson said. “This is a group that already faces disproportionate rates of discrimination, harassment, stigma, and these bills serve to potentially have an amplifying effect for these inequities we already see.”

Transgender people — especially youth and people of color — suffered the greatest negative impact.

“Suicidal ideation increased among transgender and gender non-conforming North Carolinians, and hate crimes increased,” Wilson said. “Depression and anxiety among transgender North Carolinians also increased. We saw these reverberating effects throughout people’s lives. We saw people delaying health care because of these bills because there was a concern over general attitudes towards transgender and non-binary folks.”

Limiting what students can hear, read and say about gender identity in their schools is particularly dangerous, Wilson said, as LGBTQ youth often find badly needed support and community there.

“We know the majority of LGBTQ+ youth report their home is not LGBTQ+ affirming — three in five,” Wilson said. “The rates are actually a little bit higher for schools. There are more LGBTQ+ who report their school is an affirming place than report their home is an affirming place.”

“Youth and adults turn to friends, teachers, other people in the community to be able to gain that acceptance and willingness to support the person regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Wilson said.

Sponsors of these bills see that as the problem.?“Parents do not surrender their children to government schools for indoctrination opposed to the family’s values,” said Sen. Amy Galey, an Alamance County Republican and one of SB49’s main sponsors, said during a press conference last week.

That view was amplified in a Senate Rules committee meeting this week, where members of the conservative group Moms for Liberty made clear the religious motivations of the bill’s supporters.

“It seems that it would be extreme emotional abuse by the system to allow a child to believe and grow into something that is against the definition given by the Bible of truth and God’s word as far as their sexuality,” said Nicholas Jaroszynski, a board member of Moms for Liberty of Iredell County.

“To allow the state to define that is even further of an abomination,” Jaroszynski said.

The view that acceptance and support for LGBTQ students amounts to indoctrination is problematic and scientifically unfounded, said Dr. Dane Whicker, a clinical health psychologist at Duke Health who provides therapy for LGBTQ+ adolescents and adults.

Decades of scientific research doesn’t support the political narrative that young people become LGBTQ because of outside influence, Whicker said, while volumes of research demonstrate that trying to prevent LGBTQ people from embracing their identities is harmful.

“There are no interventions or practices that can stop youth from having LGBTQ+ identities,” Whicker said. “In reality these types of bills, the impact they’re going to have, is on concealment – people hiding really important parts of their identity and depriving them of the support they need to navigate those really critical pieces that affect their health and trajectory in life.”

“New territory for a lot of people”

Dr. Deanna Adkins, a pediatric endocrinologist at Duke Health and director of the Child and Adolescent Gender Care Clinic, has spent years working with hundreds of transgender patients.

The debate around gender affirming care has unfortunately strayed far from the realities of how doctors like her actually work with families and young transgender people, she said this week.

“Gender-affirming care is life saving care with decades of research behind it,” Adkins said. “You wouldn’t ask me to not practice the standard of care for any other care I give. You wouldn’t ask me to not do what the American Diabetes Association says I should do for my patients with diabetes.”

Current discussions don’t reflect the reality of the care, nor the risks of suddenly making it out of reach, Adkins said.

“This is a group of individuals, a small portion of the population, only about 3% of those under 18,” Adkins said. “And they are a quite vulnerable population. It would limit their access to potentially life-saving treatments that we have excellent evidence within the medical literature that this helps these patients in many ways. It decreases their suicidality, it improves their overall mental health, it decreases self-harm as well.”

For Sage, a 13-year old non-binary person from Greensboro, gender-affirming care of the type Adkins describes has been life saving — as has been the support of their family.

Because Sage and their family have experienced harassment and threats during Sage’s transition, Policy Watch has agreed to identify them by their first name.

After consultation with doctors, Sage and their family chose to use puberty blockers for about two years to delay its onset. The extra time allowed Sage to more consciously work through their gender identity and the steps they wanted to take to prevent gender dysphoria — the distress that comes from a misalignment of one’s body and gender identity.

The process was simple, safe and reversible, Sage and their family said.?“I had a lot of questions, of course,” said Sage’s mother, Debra. “This is new territory for a lot of people, us included at that time. We talked a lot with the doctors about what could be done, possible side effects, steps for the future. Ultimately, we weighed this treatment against the dangers of our child not wanting to live in their body and we made the decision that would make them healthy and happy. And they are.”

Legislation could soon prevent other young transgender people from having the same experience. That’s something Sage, still on their journey of transition, thinks about a lot. They’ve stopped puberty blockers and are weighing next steps, such as hormone therapy or eventually, surgery.

But having those options taken off the table by people outside the circle of their family and their doctors feels wrong.?“It’s really scary to me that the things that have been available to me might not be, and that could happen in a matter of weeks,” Sage said.

Adkins said she is hearing that concern from patients and their families daily. Without access to safe gender-affirming care, she said, there’s a danger some will turn to black market medications and treatments that aren’t safe and tested, out of desperation.

That’s not something their family will do, Sage’s mother Debra said. But they will take their child out of state for treatment if needed, she said, or even consider moving if it becomes necessary.

“This isn’t something that the government should be involved in, when a person and their family and their doctor make the decisions that are best for them,” Sage said. “Having freedom in this country, including freedom of religion, also means having freedom from having someone else’s religion used against you.”

Sage’s mother, Debra, said she’s proud her child felt supported enough to speak openly with her and her husband about their gender identity — and proud that their family has navigated this journey with love.

That’s not the story every LGBTQ person has, she said. Some face physical violence or abandonment by their families. Others face so-called “conversion therapy” — a scientifically debunked and harmful practice North Carolina has yet to ban.

“We need to be doing everything we can to make this easier for our kids, not harder,” Debra said. “For every kid who isn’t lucky enough to have the full support of their family, who doesn’t have access to the care they should, we shouldn’t be making this harder.

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.

A high school classroom. (Getty Images)

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 —? Republican Kelly Craft’s running mate in the Kentucky governor’s race took her anti-woke crusade to the Senate floor Wednesday, drawing a plea from a colleague to “avoid politicizing issues that are literally killing our children.”

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, begged her colleagues to think about “who you’re putting in the center of this fight.” Berg’s son, who was transgender, committed suicide in December.

Berg spoke after Wise, R-Campbellsville, criticized what he called the “woke agenda” in the Kentucky Department of Education and its recent guidance on how to support LGBTQI+ students and their families. His remarks garnered some applause.?

Wise introduced Senate Bill 150 which, among other things, would ban any Education Department guidance on students’ preferred names. A news release from the Senate majority office said SB 150??“provides staff and students First Amendment protections by ensuring nobody is compelled or required to use pronouns that do not conform to a student’s biological sex.”?

On the Senate floor, Wise said, “Now these may seem like very simple ideas, but in a day and age where our own commissioner of education says that a teacher can be fired for not referring to a student as a furry, it’s much needed legislation in today’s time.”?

Questioned later by reporters, Wise said he had been speaking hypothetically and had no knowledge of Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass ever saying anything about a furry. According to Wikipedia, furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters.

Glass issued a statement later Wednesday, saying: “Sen. Wise’s statement is false and?ridiculous. It is hurtful statements like these that have a negative impact on not just our students, but our educator workforce.?Putting forth policies aimed at cruelty and harm toward marginalized groups has no place in our democracy.”

If passed into law, Wise’s bill 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,” the ?Senate majority news release said. A school district would have to notify parents about the health and mental health services students are offered or seek at school.?

School districts would also be required to give parents a two-week notice about instruction or school courses on human sexuality as well as an opportunity to review accompanying materials. If parents disapprove of an assignment, the bill would require that an alternative assignment be given to the student.?

Berg asserted that teachers would be uncomfortable telling parents a child is gay or trans if the parents were unaware, in part because of concerns for the child’s safety. She suggested that disrespecting students’ name preferences could be a form of bullying and warned against “putting children in the middle of a political fight between some ostensible right and some ostensible woke culture when most of us are simply trying to do the best for the most.”

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, and worked with the statewide LGBTQ rights advocacy group Fairness Campaign as a high school student.?

At the time, Sen. Berg issued a statement ?saying, in part, “As a mother of a transgender son, I gave my whole heart trying to protect my child from a world where some people and especially some politicians intentionally continued to believe that marginalizing my child was OK simply because of who he was.”?

Wise, who was chairman of the Senate Education Committee from 2019 until recently, told reporters that the bill is not targeting a certain lifestyle but is about “empowering parents.”?

“Our schools should be focused on teaching students math, science, history, life skills, and leave it to the parents to engage their children with deeply personal discussions about their lives, but do it at home,” said Wise.

Wise’s bill and remarks come days after gubernatorial candidate Craft ?vowed to dismantle the Department of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education. In a statement, she accused both of “pushing woke agendas in our schools.”

Kentucky Department of Education spokesperson Toni Konz Tatman in an email said: ?“In Commissioner’s Glass’ testimony to the House Education Committee on Tuesday, he stated if a teacher could not follow a district’s guidelines, they should find employment elsewhere. This is the same advice that applies to any employee in any industry.

“The Kentucky Department of Education does not have authority to set curriculum, select instructional materials or mandate guidelines for how districts respond to students who are?LGBTQI+,?but we are aware that these are situations facing schools and educators on a daily basis.?

“It is necessary that the department be able to provide ongoing support and guidance to all Kentucky school districts as they face situations that are unique to their local context.

“The guidance produced by KDE gives administrators and educators information to consider when a district is devising its own policy, but this is guidance only.?KDE’s guidance on this issue is rooted in evidence-based best practices, which are cited directly in the document and is designed to promote the health and safety of all students.”

?Tatman provide a?link to the KDE guidance.

Liam Niemeyer contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with responses from Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass and the state Department of Education.