Kentucky GOP Pushing Bill Declaring Trans People Mentally Ill and Banning Trans Teachers

Mirroring the anti-gay movement of the 1970s, Kentucky Republicans are quietly moving to ban trans people from teaching while forcing doctors to consider being trans a mental disorder.

The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort | Image: Wikimedia Commons

Editor’s note: the amendment has garnered opposition among Senate Democrats and some Republicans and now appears slated to fail tomorrow. Thank you to Olivia Krauth of Queer Kentucky for her work reporting this.

Yesterday, Kentucky State Senator Gex Williams quietly proposed an alarming amendment to House Bill 759, a teacher certification reform bill that has so far received bipartisan support. The amendment, which ostensibly does not mention trans people at all, would prohibit the certification of teachers who have been “treated for or diagnosed with any disorder that is excluded from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990…as these disorders were defined in the DSM III…at the time that federal act was passed”—a list that, according to the ADA, includes “transvestism, transsexualism, and gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments.”

Of course, these terms are outdated: in 2013, the DSM V replaced ‘transsexualism’ and ‘gender identity disorder’ with gender dysphoria and finally stopped considering being trans to be a mental disorder. Because of this change, the ban as written would not apply to trans people who medically transitioned after 2013, and Williams clearly knows this. As such, the amendment also requires that doctors licensed in the state “diagnose the disorders [excluded from the ADA] based on the disorder definitions in the DSM III,” a provision that will force doctors to utilize the outdated terms instead of gender dysphoria in all contexts and reclassify being trans as a mental illness for the first time in over a decade.

It’s also worth pointing out that ‘gender identity disorder’ and ‘transsexualism’ are the only ADA-excluded disorders that were not listed in the DSM V in any way, meaning it can be inferred that this part of the proposal is really only meant to facilitate the trans teacher ban. Furthermore, a separate section stipulates that teachers who “exhibit easily identifiable behavioral signs or symptoms characteristic of [an ADA-excluded] disorder” will be forced to submit to a medical evaluation, and if they are found to meet the DSM III’s criteria, their license will be revoked. In other words, under this proposal, teachers will face these invasive evaluations if anyone reports them for ‘looking’ trans, and, if they are trans, they’ll promptly lose their jobs.

Williams’ use of the ADA’s exclusions is certainly clever: the list also includes things like ‘pedophilia,’ ‘compulsive gambling,’ ‘kleptomania,’ and ‘psychoactive substance use disorders.’ As such, it allows Williams to argue that the amendment is meant to ban teachers who qualify for these diagnoses and that trans people are a necessary sacrifice to ‘protect kids’—the exact rhetoric Republicans have invoked numerous times in the past.

And so far, it’s worked: after today’s session, Senate Republican leadership placed HB 759 on the consent orders for this Tuesday, a fast-tracked process—meant for uncontroversial bills—that will see it voted on without debate as part of a larger group of bills. Unless at least one senator voices opposition to Williams’ amendment prior to the vote, it will be adopted and passed by default.

And even if the amendment is opposed, considering that Republicans control 32 of the chamber’s 38 members, it seems likely to pass regardless. At that point, the bill would head to the House—which also has a substantial GOP supermajority—for a concurrence vote before being sent to Governor Andy Beshear’s desk. Although Beshear, a Democrat and noted trans ally, would almost certainly veto the measure, overruling him would only require a simple majority.

Unfortunately, this idea isn’t new. In the 1970s, the anti-gay movement similarly sought to ban LGB people from working in schools and saw some success, but, after the failed 1978 California Proposition 6 referendum, many states pivoted towards laws banning positive depictions of same-sex attraction instead. Some of these laws, termed ‘no promo homo’ laws, are still in effect to this day. Starting in 2022, this push has even returned as broader ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws.

However, one thing is clear: for at least the past half century, no state law has explicitly banned gay or trans people from teaching. Now, 48 years after this idea was defeated at the ballot box, Republicans are ready to try again. As it stands, they are only days away from getting away with it unopposed.

And if Kentucky Democrats allow this amendment to go through without a fight, history will remember that.