Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has vetoed a broad bill proposed by Republican lawmakers to regulate trans youth out of existence.
The bill would have banned all gender-affirming health care for minors, including therapy, and would have forced trans students to use only the bathroom matching the sex marked on their birth certificate. It also would have banned any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and given teachers license to refuse to use the correct pronouns for transgender students.
Gov. Andy Beshear said in a written veto message that 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.”
In his one-page message, he warned that the bill’s repercussions would include an increase in youth suicides. The governor said, “My faith teaches me that all children are children of God and Senate Bill 150 will endanger the children of Kentucky.”
“I heard from children that believe this bill is picking on them, and asking — in many ways — why?” the governor said. “I told them that I was going to show them that there is at least one person in Frankfort that cares for all of our children in the commonwealth, no matter what.”
Before moving to Gov. Beshear’s desk, the bill easily passed in Kentucky’s GOP-heavy legislature, with robust enough votes that the governor’s veto might not kill it. In the final two days of this year’s session, a vote could yet override the veto, making the bill into law.
Like right-wing lawmakers across the country, the GOP in Kentucky is trying to force this law through to make sure that trans youth feel too unsafe in their schools to attend, let alone come out. They claim they’re trying to protect children by making major life-altering surgery illegal for minors, but the bills bans are always broad, banning any supportive care of trans children. This despite the fact that every study into transgender youth shows that early access to gender-affirming treatments is the single largest factor in reducing suicide attempts. One in four transgender teenagers who don’t receive gender-affirming care attempt to commit suicide.
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