The GOP is attacking LGBTQ youth through legislation and our children will suffer: Opinion

They deny that any such attacks exist by pretending that LGBTQ youth don’t exist–while simultaneously sexualizing their innocent existence.

Kentucky Senate Bill 150 and House Bills 173, 177, and 470 are four of over 350 anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ bills filed in 2023.

They all target children’s lives, especially HB 470.

One Kentucky bill wouldn’t just ban trans youth from using the safest bathroom–it could ban any shared bathroom, given it defines “community standard of dress” by birth certificate.

More:Fairness Campaign releases poll showing most Kentuckians oppose anti-trans legislation

How is it not an attack to segregate children like criminals?

That bill would ban “discussing” orientation or identity tied to gender in K-12. Discussion is “talking about with.” A kid referencing his moms, being a flower girl for her two uncles, or being a boy who likes pink will be silenced. A teenager talking about life–being bullied, left out, having a crush–will be silenced by teachers at the threat of government punishment.

Last year, three in five trans youth considered and one in five LGBTQ students attempted suicide.

It’s not because they’re trans. We know why: 94% of LGBTQ youth say recent politics harms their mental health, and just one accepting adult reduces suicide risk by half.

Re-read that last line.

Republicans know this yet use politics to create barriers to feeling accepted. Introduced legislation would illegalize pride flags, Safe Space stickers, and “affinity groups” like GSA clubs.

Worse, these bills strip rights from parents, informed by their doctors and pastors, to make decisions about their own children, handing those rights to the government.

More:New, sweeping anti-trans bill being fast-tracked in Kentucky legislature

Gender affirming care is not just surgeries and hormones

HB 470 would illegalize any “gender transition service” for children, even with their parents’ and doctors’ support, even to prevent death.

Imagining surgeries and blockers?

Affirmation surgeries are effectively non-existent in youth: Florida only found two among 5 million youth, both teens. Puberty blockers are equally rare, prescribed to only 1 in 53,000 youth. These interventions exist as final suicide prevention.

HB 470 defines “name change” and “pronoun adoption” as “gender transition,” making it illegal for a counselor, doctor, or even teacher to use a name not “associated with” sex, even with parents’ instructions, despite research confirming that honoring trans youth’s names reduces depression and suicide.

Should the government remove parents’ rights to care for and even name their child, even at the risk of death?

How is it not an attack to deny parents basic decision-making and lifesaving care?

How is it not an attack to prevent schools from protecting LGBTQ students from suicide by intentionally banning the best ways to prevent it?

How is it not an attack to ban kids from referencing their or their family’s existence?

The most dangerous anti-parent agenda in HB 470 would force schools to watch, track and turn in students according to gender, sexuality and gender expression, an aspect leading a dear friend and teacher to say, “I didn’t sign up to be a co-conspirator in a kid’s suicide.”

Schools would be forced to notify parents if a student uses a name or pronoun not consistent with documentation or if students show significant changes in their “gender expression” (i.e. their “behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics”). In other words, any children deemed inadequate at following government-defined personalities and interests for their gender  would be monitored, documented, and reported on.

Boys whom schools perceive as feminine or girls whom schools perceive as masculine would be noted, put into Infinite Campus, and reports would be filed to parents.

More:A new bill is aimed at LGBTQ kids. It would hurt almost every Kentucky family.

School documentation never disappears.

There is nothing new about kids not fitting molds: even my grandparents spoke of “tomboys” and “sissies” - what is new is the idea that these kids should be seen as sick, dangerous, or in need of being reported.

We are talking about the U.S. government tracking and documenting children’s personalities and responding as if they are unwell or a threat for existing.

Reasonable Americans don’t want teachers obsessing over their child’s gender, sex or sexuality, which this legislation would require, since not reporting would be punishable. I taught teens for fifteen years. Students changing hairstyles, names, interests, expressions or pronouns is normal and not my business. They’re kids; they try on new identities. I’m not there to tell them what they have to be. I’m there to teach English.

But instead of curriculum, under proposed legislation teachers would obsess over kids’ gender and sexuality. They break the law otherwise. Some teachers will obsess out of fear, some due to personal beliefs, and, let’s face it, some for unspeakable reasons.

Moreover, schools know that some parents might harm their own children. Almost 30% of LGBTQ youth experience homelessness, the majority of whom are rejected by their families for being LGBTQ. More terrifying, three-quarters of a million LGBTQ people have undergone “conversion therapy”–a dangerous practice banned for minors in 29 states that causes a 92% increase in suicidal ideation and an 88% increase in attempts.

More:Two of Kentucky’s transgender kids grew up in my home. They don't deserve legislative attacks

Reporting some students will greatly increase their odds of death.

Parents’ rights are important. But these bills remove the parents’ rights to decide the name and care of their trans child. And rights have nothing to do with harming or targeting one group.

Consider this: 38% of Americans believe the US has gone too far in accepting trans people. However, a virtually identical number, 36%, has little to no confidence in the church or religion. The number who don’t trust religion is the same as the number who don’t accept trans people.

Using this data, would Republican leaders support teachers separating from classmates a student who shows outward religious belief?  Or banning discussion or symbols that might invoke religion?  Or schools tracking and calling parents of kids who mention church or show religious beliefs? Of course not.

Those aren’t parent rights. Those are criminal, targeted, hateful practices. And religion, unlike gender identity or orientation, is a choice.

I oppose anti-trans bills for the same reason I’d oppose similar bills targeting religion: because people deserve freedom from government attacks on their safety, identity and beliefs.

Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. is an author, advocate, and the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. He is a board member of the Kentucky Youth Law Project, the author of Gay Poems for Red States, and believes that all people deserve equal rights and dignity. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Bills attack LGBTQ youth and our children will suffer