Transgender advocates have said such surgeries on minors are not happening in Kentucky. The state’s first openly trans elected official, Berea school board member Rebecca Blankenship, said on a recent KET appearance that “every LGBT organization in the commonwealth said that we were absolutely fine with banning those sorts of surgeries for minors. . . . We might as well ban unicorn attacks; it makes no difference.”
Attorney General Daniel Cameron called the ruling “misguided.” Cameron, the Republican nominee for governor, said in a press release that SB 150 is a “commonsense law that protects Kentucky children.”
“There is nothing ‘affirming’ about this dangerous approach to mental health,” hesaid. “My office will continue to do everything in our power to defend this law passed by our elected representatives.”
Cameron’s opponent, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, vetoed SB 150, but Republican-controlled legislature easily overrode him.
Blankenship, executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, said in a joint statement with Michael Frazier, a lobbyist for the group, that “puberty blockers and hormone therapy save lives.”
National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter called the decision a “a huge relief for the families targeted by this unnecessary and harmful law. She said the law “prevents doctors from doing their jobs and parents from making medical decisions for their own children.”