LOUISVILLE,Ky — As thousands of Americans across the country begin to celebrate Pride Month, the Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide advocacy group, announced a first of its kind warning to the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year,” the group’s website stated.
Kentucky is one of nearly 20 states to pass legislation barring youth from accessing gender transition care.
“I think a lot of Kentuckians and a lot of LGBT Americans do feel that we’re in a state of emergency,” Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first transgender elected official, said.
Blankenship was elected to the Berea school board earlier this year. She adds the Human Rights Campaign’s warning comes days after a scary situation at a park in Eastern Kentucky, first reported on by Queer Kentucky.
“Over the weekend in Corbin, they hosted one of their first ever Pride events. That event was attended by members of the Ku Klux Klan who pulled out a gun and threatened people who were there,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship, who’s also the head of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, a trans-led civil rights organization, says discriminatory bills, such as the broad-reaching anti-transgender Senate Bill 150 are also harmful, especially for trans and queer youth who will be impacted when they return to the classroom in the fall.
Among other things, SB 150 essentially bans gender transition care for youth, no longer requires teachers to use a student’s requested pronouns, and bars trans students from using the restrooms and locker rooms that they identify with.
“There are students in my district that are concerned about the climate that this is going to create, both in terms of bullying from their peers, and in terms of a lack of support from teachers who may not know what rights they have to protect these students now that this law is going into effect,” Blankenship said.
Last month, the ACLU of Kentucky filed a lawsuit to block SB 150 from going into effect. Barring no intervention from the courts, the ban on gender transition care for people under 18 will begin June 29.
This week a federal judge ruled a similar measure in Florida unconstitutional. While Blankenship is hopeful for similar action in Kentucky, she adds the LGBTQ+ community cannot solely rely on that happening.
“We have a choice. We can either mobilize and organize or we can throw ourselves to fate,” Blankenship said. “I hope that every LGBT person in Kentucky and every person who loves an LGBT person in Kentucky is listening when I say that we must fight back.”
SB 150 passed through both the state house and senate in which Republicans hold a super majority. Still, Blankenship says worse bills, such as one that would have banned drag shows, ultimately died.
“There are far-right groups out there in this country that are hell bent on convincing regular voters that people like me are pedophiles and groomers,” Blankenship said. “Those accusations are false and when legislators meet with us, they see that our values are more in common than they are not. We make real progress in terms of movement on these issues.”
Blankenship encourages those wanting to see change happen to join an organization already in the fight.