"Under the Constitution, trans youth in Kentucky have the right to medically necessary care," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a press release.
The legal organization calls its lawsuit, Doe v. Thornury, a challenge to the state's "transgender healthcare ban," but David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, says SB 150 is about protecting children.
"We've always had very clear understanding that the government, particularly as we're talking about children, has a legal and I would argue moral obligation to protect our children from physical harm, and that's really what we're talking about here," he submits.
What the ACLU is advocating, he says, is "a radical, dangerous, ideological movement that is seeking to do something that's just simply not possible: Change a child's biological sex." He points out that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are untested and experimental interventions that are chemically and sometimes physically mutilating children.
"It is of the highest obligation for the government to step in and protect kids from these harms," Walls contends.
That is why his organization was "so thankful" that the general assembly passed that law. Then when Governor Andy Beshear (D) vetoed it, the legislature came back and overwhelmingly overrode his veto.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) has joined the ACLU in the lawsuit, which is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, but Walls is not worried.
"We have every expectation that our attorney general's office will give a robust defense of this very important law protecting kids in Kentucky, as we have seen the attorney general's office do time and time again," he tells AFN.
He cites AG Daniel Cameron's defense of the states pro-life laws and his protection of female athletes as the basis for that confidence.
Cameron recently won the Republican primary to challenge Gov. Beshear for office in the fall.
