Kentucky Bill Would Declare Emergency Over Trans Kids In Bathrooms

This is not a joke. Kentucky's newest anti-trans bill, HB30, was introduced on January 3rd. It would declare transgender students in bathrooms an emergency and ban them.

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

Kentucky has been the site of several battles over transgender people in recent years. Just last year, several anti-trans bills failed. One bill would have medically detransitioned all trans teens in the state. Another would have added transphobia as a protected category that would “not be able to be discriminated against.” Famously, Kentucky recently passed an overarching sports ban on transgender athletes - one that the governor vetoed, but was overridden by their legislature. Now, though, one Kentucky representative - Representative Bill Wesley - wants to take things a step further. Rep. Wesley has decided that now is the time to declare an emergency. What is the emergency? Transgender students being able to use the bathroom of their gender identity. The bill is HB30, and it is one of the very first anti-transgender bills to be introduced in 2023.

At the top of the bill, it literally declares transgender students in bathrooms an emergency:

It lists definitions and then moves to a statement of facts and findings. One such finding is that allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms creates embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury to students:

This is an absolutely vile "justification” for passing a transgender bathroom ban for trans students. By bringing up “psychological injury,” the drafter of this bill acts as if transgender kids are predators in bathrooms and that their mere presence can cause injury to other children. On top of that, this statement of fact says that transgender students are unsafe to have in bathrooms. Cis kids must therefore be “protected” from transgender students and trans people must be kicked out of all bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. Never mind the safety of the transgender students themselves - we know that up to 36% of transgender teens forced to use the facilities of their assigned sex at birth report being sexually assaulted.

Transgender people are not a danger in bathrooms. They do not assault people and are no more risky (and likely far less risky) than the general public - often transgender people are extremely careful in bathrooms and have learned to be aware and nervous of their surroundings. Many times a bathroom is the most stressful place for a transgender person. Trans people are not at an increased risk of hurting people in bathrooms any more than other groups that use them. In fact, more Republican congressmen have been charged with sexual misconduct in bathrooms than transgender women. Why do Republicans care so much about restricting trans people from using them, then? Should we ban them from bathrooms?

Ultimately, the bill spells out the restrictions on trans people. All multi-person bathrooms and locker rooms must be labeled male or female. Transgender students must go to the bathroom of their assigned sex at birth or out themselves for reasonable accommodation (either step would force all “stealth” trans students to out themselves if they wish to follow the law). If a cis student even so much as encounters a trans student in a locker room or bathroom that doesn’t match their sex at birth, even if no misconduct happens, that cis person can sue the school up to 2 years after the fact. That’s right, if a cis person discovers 2 years later that they shared the bathroom with a trans person, they can go back and sue.

These bills make a mockery of the emergency process. They cruelly single out all trans students in the state for discrimination, and force trans students to out themselves publicly. They create a second class of citizenship where trans students are not given equal access to their cis peers. They create an unsafe environment for trans kids that will inevitably lead to harm, and they kick out a group that is not known for committing any kind of harm against others in bathrooms. Republicans raise the specter of trans people being predators all while throwing trans kids to the wolves, all for a cheap political victory on a marginalized group of people.