A last-minute bill passed by the General Assembly reverses Governor Beshear’s executive order banning state funded child conversion therapy. Conversion therapy aims to change a young person’s gender expression or sexual attractions and is opposed by the American Medical Association and mental health groups. Lexington’s first transgender city council member, Emma Curtis, has testified against several bills critics say are anti-LGBTQ.
‘My reaction to the late-night passage of House Bill 495 was anger, heartbreak, not necessarily surprise, though.”
Curtis said she feels fortunate to have not been forced into conversion therapy, but knows people who were.
“Everybody that I have ever spoken with that has been through so called conversion therapy comes back to the same word, and that's torture.”
HB 495 also bans Medicaid coverage for some types of gender affirming care, which Curtis has said saved her life when she was growing up.
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