Anti Trans Bill passes in Kentucky after it seemed the bill was dead
Despite lawmakers debating whether it went too far, a sweeping anti-trans bill appeared dead in Kentucky by Wednesday night. However, it surprised Democrats, transgender activists, and their allies when Republicans managed to hold a committee vote, then rush the bill through approvals in both the state House and Senate the following day.
Although Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear isn’t expected to sign the bill, which passed mostly along party lines, into law, the GOP has enough of a majority to override his veto. People in the gallery were furious when the measure passed and yelled obscenities at lawmakers on the floor.
Democratic state Sen. Karen Berg, whose transgender son died by suicide in December, cried after the vote. She had delivered powerful testimony as the bill was being debated, calling it “the single worst anti-LGBTQ legislation that has come out of a statehouse in this country.”
The bill allows trans students to be misgendered, bans gender-affirming care for trans kids, requires doctors to begin detransitioning any of their trans patients who are children, mandates that schools create policies that will not allow trans students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, forbids discussion of human sexuality until sixth grade, and requires parental consent after that.
The Kentucky GOP’s last-minute push to advance the bill follows a disturbing nationwide trend. Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced just this year in states dominated by Republicans as part of the broader culture war on trans Americans and the push for “parental rights.”
Gender-affirming care for minors is appropriate and not dangerous, according to the American Medical Association. Instead of serving the most vulnerable among us, Berg said her fellow lawmakers ignored the science behind gender-affirming care for trans children and only rushed this bill for one reason.
“My child came up here 10 years ago,” she said on Thursday, referring to her son’s 2015 testimony against a bathroom bill in the Kentucky statehouse. “You had time to understand the science… this is absolute, willful, intentional hate.”
