Democratic Governor; Andy Beshear has signed an executive order outlawing the use of “conversion therapy” on children in Kentucky.
He defended the move by saying it was an essential safety measure to protect children from the extensively discredited practice of trying to alter someone’s gender identity or s*xual orientation through treatment.
The governor used his executive authority after attempts to enact a state law prohibiting the practice were continuously blocked by Republicans in charge of the state legislature.
Beshear vowed he would no longer wait for others to “do what’s right.”
“My faith teaches me that all children are children of God,” Beshear said during the signing ceremony at the Kentucky Capitol. “And where practices are endangering and even harming those children, we must act. The practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy’ hurts our children.”
This was the latest in a national conversation over conversion therapy and the rights of LGBTQ+ adolescents and their families. The Kentucky incident stirred strong emotions.
The thirty-four-year-old filmmaker Zach Meiners was present. He said that he wished young people could never go through the anguish and suffering he went through during his four years of treatment as a teenager, which left him with “anxiety and depression in ways that I’m still unraveling.”
“I can speak firsthand to how devastating it can be to someone’s mental health,” Meiners said in an interview. “And I consider myself very lucky to be a survivor.” After the signing, Republican state representative Killian Timoney shook Beshear’s hand and backed the prohibition. The governor, according to state Representative Josh Calloway, a fellow Republican, had disregarded the will of the legislature, which isn’t expected to meet again until January.
“We are the lawmaking body, and laws should be made by people’s representatives,” Calloway said. Beshear’s order, according to the Family Foundation, a socially conservative organization in Kentucky, violates parental rights and stifles religious expression. The phrase “unlawful action” was used to describe the ban, possibly indicating a legal challenge.
“This order, like previous failed legislative efforts, is designed to promote false LGBTQ ideologies and muzzle Christian counselors, therapists, and pastors from helping children struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity confusion,” David Walls, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
Daniel Schmid, a legal executive with Liberty Counsel, a Christian group, claimed that the prohibition “roughshod over the First Amendment.”
