Kentucky bill would repeal ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth

A 2023 Kentucky ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth under the age of 18 would be repealed under a new bill filed in the Kentucky House Thursday. 

Currently, the ban, implemented under 2023 Senate 150, is in full effect and pending a move for U.S. Supreme Court review (writ of certiorari) of a 2023 stay handed down the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. But a bill filed Thursday (House Bill 376) could make a legal challenge moot should it become law.  

HB 376 would reverse SB 150’s healthcare treatment restrictions on trans youth. It would also roll back the law’s ban on required school use of preferred pronouns and shared bathrooms for trans students.

The new bill would also eliminate SB 150’s requirement that schools share confidential student information with parents. 

Reps. Sarah Stalker (D-Louisville) and Adrielle Camuel (D-Lexington) are the bill’s co-sponsors. 

“No child should have to advocate for not only their basic rights but their very identity,” Stalker, the bill’s lead sponsor, said in a statement Thursday. “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.”

Here is a list of HB 376’s provisions and how they would change current law in Kentucky:

-Completely repeal the ban on gender-affirming treatments, clearing the way for minors to seek in-state gender care.

-Roll back SB 150’s ban on sex education for children in grade five or below and its ban on gender identity and sexual orientation instruction in schools.

-Allow schools to provide health and mental health services to students without first getting parental consent.

-Allow schools and school districts to keep certain student information confidential from parents.

-Remove SB 150’s ban on required use of preferred gender pronouns in schools, instead requiring schools to use preferred pronouns “when a student submits a request to use such pronouns to the school principal”.

-Allow students to use shared school bathrooms, locker rooms, or showers based on their gender. Acceptable “alternate” restrooms or other spaces can only be “implemented by the school upon the student’s request,” according to the bill. 

Any attempt to roll back SB 150 – and especially statutory repeal of the current ban on gender-affirming care for minors – faces an uphill battle in the conservative-led Kentucky General Assembly. SB 150 passed both the Senate and House by wide margins last year, receiving final Senate passage on a 30-7 vote and House passage by a vote of 75-22. 

But both Stalker and Camuel appear determined to make inroads on their bill before the 2024 legislative session ends by April 15. 

 “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 Thursday. “We are dedicated and unified in an effort to promote equality and justice for everyone.”

Stalker said Thursday she filed the bill for every “young trans person in Kentucky, including those who are unable to tell others who they really are.” She gave a direct nod to Fischer Wells, a Louisville transgender girl who started a girls’ field hockey team at her school but can’t play on the team. 

Wells was banned from playing the sport at her school under a 2022 Kentucky law that prohibits transgender girls from playing on state-sanctioned girls’ sports teams. 

“I am filing this repeal for Fischer Wells and for every other young trans person in Kentucky, including those who are unable to tell others who they really are,” Stalker said Thursday.

The 2023 General Assembly passed SB 150 despite widespread protests by transgender youth and LGTBQ advocates last year. The law’s ban on care survived a 2023 court injunction that Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron challenged during his failed gubernatorial campaign. Next came a stay of the lower court’s ruling via the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last fall. The next step, say advocates, is the US Supreme Court.

Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in November: “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. It’s time to stop criminalizing health care, interfering with personal decisions, and substituting political agendas for the expertise of health care professionals.”