Bigotry, grift and harm to kids is at the heart of KY ‘parents’ rights’ bills | Opinion

Extremist groups have proposed a new bill that would add harsh updates to last year’s controversial anti-LGBT law, S.B. 150.

Rep. Shane Baker’s H.B. 304 is a solution in search of a problem. It’s a paranoid vision of a school system where teachers are secretly transmogrifying your kids into gays; where guidance counselors are kidnappers in wait; where school nurses are long-nosed witches who give hormone pills to kindergarteners.

Maybe the real solution is for Rep. Baker to take his meds.

The bill has several issues. First, it would make it illegal for any Kentucky high schooler to receive any sex education at all — even about abstinence. Second, it permits school employees to misgender any student or adult they suspect of being transgender. Finally, it would require teachers to inform parents if the teachers suspect their child of being queer or transgender. If a teacher fails to do that within two business days, they would lose their teaching license for two years.

The bill’s supporters have blustered about “parents’ rights.” But that’s just a slogan. To really understand this, we have to ask: what is the point of this? A parent’s right to do what?The reason we keep getting sold these silly and dangerous bills, wrapped in commonsense values language, is that a small number of outside extremist groups continue to believe gender identity and sexual orientation can be changed in conversion therapy. This bill, and others like it, is designed to give parents an “early intervention” option so they can put a kid in conversion therapy the minute they’re suspected of being queer.

Conversion therapy, sometimes called “pray the gay away” camp, is a totally discredited practice that inflicts enormous, long-term harm on kids and families. Trying to change a person from gay to straight, or vice versa, doesn’t work. And those who go through it attempt suicide at triple the rate of those who don’t. It’s a scam, and it hurts kids.

Now, most parents who send their kids to conversion therapy are well-meaning. They really are. They don’t know they’re putting their kid in danger; they’re just afraid about what kind of life their kid is going to have. Conversion therapists are more than happy to exploit those fears, scam these parents, and abuse these children in the process.

Most appallingly, the profits conversion therapists make off these families’ suffering are often donated right back to the extremist groups that push bills like H.B. 304. Yes, this is the “parent’s right” that these extremist groups are working so hard to protect: the “right” to be scammed. The “right” to be lied to. The “right” to turn their kids over to pseudo-doctors who will hurt those kids are much as they are paid to.

The realistic parent says, “If my child is trans or queer, I know their life is going to be harder, and I need to show them love. We should seek family counseling and figure out how to navigate whatever challenges I might not be prepared to.” They might be hurt if their child decides not to tell them everything right away, but in the end, the realistic parent’s top priority is raising their child as well as they can, to have as happy a life as the child can have.

House Bill 304 isn’t written for realistic parents. In fact, it isn’t written for any parents. It’s written to create family crises. It’s written to turn family conversations into government-sponsored conflicts. It’s written to sour our most treasured relationships into politicized melodramas.

It’s written to make our most personal moments easier for conversion therapists to exploit.

The next time you hear extremists yelling for “parents’ rights,” ask yourself: a parent’s right to do what?

Rebecca Blankenship is the Executive Director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky. She serves on the Berea Community School Board.