KY House moving quickly to pass bill barring gender transition services for minors
Another piece of anti-transgender legislation is set to make its way through at least one chamber of the Kentucky legislature this year.
House Bill 470, which cracks down on gender transition services for any Kentuckian under 18, was introduced among a raft of bills in the Kentucky House on Tuesday. The 37-page bill would, among other things, disallow providers from prescribing puberty blockers or performing gender-affirming surgery to minors.
It’s likely to move out of that chamber quickly, according to one member of House leadership.
The Senate has already passed a measure that received pushback from members of the transgender community, Senate Bill 150. That bill would allow teachers to choose whether or not they want to use students’ pronouns.
House Bill 470, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Shelbyville, deems provision of gender transition services “unethical and unprofessional conduct,” and would revoke the license of any provider confirmed to have provided that care to a minor.
The bill defines “gender transition services” as “any service provided or performed by a healthcare provider or mental healthcare provider for the purpose of assisting a person with a gender transition.” That would include – per the bill – “social transition services,” inpatient and outpatient services, prescribing or dispensing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, and any form of gender reassignment surgery.
House Bill 470 also codifies legal defenses for providers to not engage in gender transition services, and it establishes avenues for providers of gender transition services to be sued for damages.
Schools play a role in the legislation. A school would be required to notify each parent or guardian of a child if they express a desire to be referred by a name inconsistent with their sex, they “significantly change” their gender expression, or express “an inconsistency between his or her sex and his or her perceived gender or perceived sex.”
House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, said he was not closely involved with the legislation but told the Herald-Leader that the plan within the Republican caucus, which has an 80-member supermajority in the 100-member House, is to pass the legislation “pretty soon.”
“It’s something that’s been very important to our members, and I think we will definitely take action on it. There’s a lot of support behind it. There’s been a group working on this package for several, several months,” Rudy said. “I think there’s agreement among our caucus that we are going to proceed with this legislation, and I think it’ll happen pretty soon.”
Rebecca Blankenship, who made history as Kentucky’s first openly transgender elected official last year, said that she believes Decker and the other legislators behind the bill have good intentions, but that the product will threaten the wellbeing of transgender kids.
“They really believe that they’re doing right by children and families. This bill does not do right by children and families. It is an effort to do with a screwdriver what should be done with a scalpel... It’s almost certainly going to cost lives when you’re talking about a population who’s suicide rate is over 4 times higher than the general population,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship said that she and others concerned about the bill “remain optimistic” that they can make changes to the bill as it moves through the legislative process, but called the House’s likelihood to pass it soon “an abdication of their responsibility to be deliberative about these things.”
The bill was granted the first of two readings required for a vote on the House floor on Tuesday, the same day that it was introduced.
House Bill 470 bears some resemblance to a bill passed by the Oklahoma Senate last week – full passage out of the legislature there is still pending – that drew condemnation from the Human Rights Campaign, among other advocacy groups.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 10:00 AM.
