Kentucky Releases Bill That Is Every Anti-Trans Bill Rolled Into One, Bans Social Transition Services

Anti-trans bills have proliferated in 2023, and they have targeted the trans community in an endless number of ways. Now, Kentucky HB470 seeks to combine them all into one.

Anti-trans legislation has moved in several states in 2023, with most bills targeting transgender youth in a myriad of ways. Hundreds of bills target trans people under the age of 18 with forced outing to their parents, a removal of their gender affirming medical care, bans on their pronouns and freedom of expression, and more. Republicans in several states continually come up with creative and cruel new ways to target the community. Now, 37 Republican cosponsors in Kentucky have released House Bill 470, a bill which takes nearly every anti-trans youth bill from nearly every state in 2023 and combines them all into one single cruel piece of legislation. It then adds wrinkles not seen in any other state.

The bill primarily targets transgender medical care. One section, for instance, would prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 18 years old. This care is considered lifesaving by nearly every major medical association. Additionally, the bill would investigate doctors, revoke their licenses, terminate public funding for trans youth care, and ban Medicaid coverage. The legislation is not limited to healthcare; one section would require schools to disclose transgender students' information to their parents, and another section would ban gender marker changes for transgender youths. A unique provision in this bill would also prohibit legal name changes for youth, but only if the name change is for "gender transition purposes." This last provision indicates a new front for attacks on transgender youth that has not been seen in any other legislation this year.

Perhaps one of the most cruel portions of the bill is the section that focuses on mental health professionals and social transition. The bill defines social transition services as any encouragement, advocacy, or affirmation including pronouns, affirming a name change, and affirming “sex specific behaviors that vary from those typically associated with a person’s sex.” It then states that mental health counselors are banned from any of this and by doing so, they could lose their licenses:

Relevant sections of HB470.

This provision is particularly horrifying. For one, it sets that therapists are supposed to be enforcing cisgender behavior on trans youth. This is akin to forced conversion therapy for every therapist in the state of Kentucky. It states that any therapist that affirms transgender youths’ name, pronouns, clothing choices, or similar behaviors and expressions will lose their license for unprofessional conduct. The consequences of this would be dramatic and dangerous for transgender youth.

When paired with other provisions, the bill amounts to not just a medical transition ban but a social transition ban. Trans youth would not be able to get their names changed and their birth certificates updated. They would not be able to get any affirmation in public schools of their gender identity. They would not even be able to get mental healthcare. It is a draconian bill that takes the worst portions of every other anti-trans bill in the United States and combines it into a single, extremely damaging piece of legislation. Given the number of cosponsors and the severity of this bill, it must be taken extremely seriously.

This is in line with indications from anti-trans organizations showing that social transition would be the next target. A recent presentation from the NHS in the UK shows the group Genspect, active in many anti-trans bills in the United States and worldwide, was pushing conversion therapy materials that cautioned, among other things, that social transition should be withheld. Genspect also has been involved in Florida’s gender affirming care ban and recently, the Florida Department of Health has advocated ending social transition. See Genspect’s many examples of promoting banning social transition:

August 28th Genspect Tweet

Statement against social transition on Genspect’s website.

Gender affirming care saves lives, and social transition involves nothing more than a change of name, pronouns, and gender expression. Gender affirming care for trans youth has been associated with much lower suicide rates - 73% reduction in suicidality in one recent study. Another study showed a reduction in actual suicide attempts of 40%. Social transition in and of itself results in better mental health outcomes for trans youth. A 2018 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health showed that youth who have their chosen names used saw a 56% decrease in suicidal behavior. A survey from the Trevor Project confirmed this finding, showing that trans youth who were able to change their legal documents had their suicide risks cut by more than 50%:

Source: The Trevor Project

The bill itself does many more things - the “summary” of the bill is a gargantuan wall of text:

“Summary” of the Kentucky HB470

Among things that the bill does:

• Defines sex as "biological sex at birth."

• Bans gender affirming healthcare for trans youth.

• Bans mental healthcare for trans youth.

• Investigates doctors and therapists and takes away their licenses for providing care.

• Terminates public funding for trans youth.

• Terminates Medicaid coverage for trans youth.

• States that trans youth can't have care that affirms pronoun or name choices, clothing choices, and even "gendered patterns of behavior."

• Bans private insurance for trans youth.

• Bans school counselors from talking to trans youth about their transition.

• Forces school employees to out transgender students to their parents, even if the student fears abuse.

• Forces the reporting of any "change in gender expression" or gender nonconformity.

• Bans birth certificate changes for trans youth.

• Bans legal name changes for trans youth.

• Allows trans youth to sue their doctors 30 years later.

HB470 is an atrocity towards transgender people and calling it government overreach would be an understatement - many portions of the bill are flagrantly unconstitutional and vague. Nowhere is “gendered behavior” defined, nor does the bill define what clothing is “typical of ones sex.” It unlawfully discriminates against transgender people using the same medication that cisgender kids with precocious puberty. It unlawfully singles out transgender youth and bans them from name changes that cisgender youth are allowed to have. It is a bill that brings to mind Frakenstein’s monster, mashing together the worst parts of anti-trans bills in every other state into a single, broadly targeted piece of legislation. The fact that so many Republicans are cosponsoring just goes to show how far trans panic has progressed in states like Kentucky this legislative cycle.