Trans Legislation Tracker

Kentucky

We are tracking 12 anti-trans bills in Kentucky in 2024. The legislation impacts 4 categories:

EDUCATION

BIRTH CERTIFICATES

CIVIL RIGHTS

PERFORMANCE

KY HB304

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to education and declaring an emergency.

Amend KRS 158.191 to ensure parental rights and involvement by requiring notification within two business days of specific events; require a district to adopt procedures that both encourage students to speak with parents and require facilitation of the discussion with parents; forbid a district or school from adopting policies that keep any student information confidential from parents or refuse information requested by a parent with specific exceptions; forbid a district from requiring school personnel or students to use nonconforming pronouns for any individual instead of just students, establish the type of mental health services that the section does not prohibit a district from seeking for students; amend KRS 158.1415 to prohibit a child in any grade level from receiving instruction on a specific topic a parent has provided written notice to the school asserting an objection due to religious or moral beliefs; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to establish a cause of action for violations; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to prohibit a disciplinary action or adverse employment action for an employee informing a parent of specific information about a student or declining to use a pronoun or title inconsistent with the individual's biological sex; amend KRS 158.193 to establish that a school employee may participate in voluntary, student-initiated, student-led prayer when invited to do so; EMERGENCY.

A school shall notify a student's parents within two (2) business days of the following occurring: School personnel become aware of any of the following: [...] 4. The student requests or receives health services or mental health services related to sexual conduct or behavior, sexual orientation, or sexual identity; 5. The student asserts that the student's gender is different from his or her biological sex;

KY HB358

BIRTH CERTIFICATES
FAILED

AN ACT relating to birth certificates.

Amend KRS 213.046, 213.056, and 213.071 to require the biological sex designation on a birth certificate to be either male or female and prohibit a nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation including the letter "X."

Beginning on the effective date of this Act, the biological sex designation on a birth certificate issued under this section shall be either male or female and shall not be nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation, including but not limited to the letter "X."

KY HB390

CIVIL RIGHTS
FAILED

AN ACT relating to sex-based classifications.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 61 to define "boy," "equal," "female," "girl," "male," "man," "sex," and "woman"; prohibit any state or local law, regulation, ordinance, or policy from treating males or females unfairly from similiarly situated members of the opposite sex, but permit separation of the sexes if in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness; provide a non-exhaustive list of examples of areas in which public entities may distinguish between the sexes; require any public school, public school district, state agency, department, local government, special district, or any political subdivision of those entities that collects vital statistics to identify each person as either male or female; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights.

The purpose of the Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights is to bring clarity, certainty, and uniformity to the laws of Kentucky regarding sex discrimination, equality of the sexes, and benefits or services specifically provided to males and to females. (3) The Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights applies wherever Kentucky law or policy classifies people on the basis of sex or otherwise defines people as being male or female, men or women, or boys or girls, as these terms are defined in Section 2 of this Act.

KY HB402

PERFORMANCE
FAILED

AN ACT relating to adult-oriented businesses and declaring an emergency.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 231 to express the findings of the General Assembly relating to adult-oriented businesses and the need for regulation; define terms; establish distance parameters for the location of adult-oriented businesses in proximity to identified entities and locations; establish transition provisions for existing businesses; affirm the authority of local governmental units to supplement regulation of adult-oriented businesses; EMERGENCY.

Adult-oriented business" means an adult arcade, adult bookstore or video store, adult cabaret, adult theater, or any establishment that hosts sexually explicit drag performances or any performance involving sexual conduct; [...] "Drag performance" means a performance in which a performer sings, lip syncs, dances, reads, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment while exhibiting an exaggerated gender expression that is inconsistent with the biological sex of the performer using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers, and this expression is a caricatured, advertised, or featured aspect of the performance taken as a whole;

KY HB51

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to students.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to establish definitions for the section; state legislative findings and declarations; require a public school to obtain parent approval for their child's participation in any questionnaire or similar activities; establish parental rights relating to student data and privacy; require parental consent prior to using radio frequency identification technology to track students or collect student data; require school districts and public to adopt policies and procedures to comply with the restrictions on use of radio frequency identification technology; establish a cause of action for violation of the section; amend KRS 158.191 to require a local board of education to adopt policies to prohibit the administration of certain examinations or surveys without written parental consent; establish requirements for schools to obtain parental permission, create limitations of the section's applicability; provide that Section 1 may be cited as The Child and Family Privacy Act.

The Kentucky Board of Education or the Kentucky Department of Education shall not require or recommend policies or procedures for the use of pronouns that do not conform to a student's biological sex as indicated on the student's original, unedited birth certificate issued at the time of birth.

KY HB652

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to federal law.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 156 to prohibit the Kentucky Department of Education from complying with a provision of any administrative regulation or guidance issued by the United States Department of Education concerning Title IX that equates gender identity to biological sex, require school districts, public schools, and public charter schools to also comply, specify that the withholding of any federal funds shall not negate the requirements of this section; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to apply the same restrictions to the Council on Postsecondary Education and any public postsecondary educational institution.

The Kentucky Department of Education shall not comply with a provision of any administrative regulation promulgated or guidance issued by the United States Department of Education under the authority of 20 U.S.C. sec. 1681 et seq. that equates gender identity with biological sex within the provisions of that chapter. This requirement shall also be applicable to all school districts, public schools, and public charter schools, and any other elementary or secondary educational institution operated by the Commonwealth. The withholding of any federal funds shall not negate this section

KY HB9

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to postsecondary education and declaring an emergency.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from influencing the composition of the student body or scholarship recipients on the basis of religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from implementing a student housing assignment plan on the basis of religion, race, color, or national origin with designated exceptions; from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the promotion of discriminatory topics, or bias incident investigations; from soliciting statements on an applicant's experience with or views on religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from requiring a course or training on diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory concepts as a program requirement; and from permitting credit from a course dedicated to the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory concepts to count towards the total number of credits required for a degree or certificate, or disseminating or profiting from any research, work product, or material that promotes or justifies discriminatory concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion; establish exclusions; require each governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to amend the institution's policy on nondiscrimination to include a clause on ideological neutrality that prohibits institutional discrimination on the basis of an individual's political or social ideology; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from requiring or encouraging any individual to endorse or condemn a specific political or social ideology or make any inquiry into the political or social ideology of students, faculty, and staff or from providing preferential or prejudicial consideration or treatment to an individual on the basis of that individual's actual or perceived political or social ideology; prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin or from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory topics; establish exclusions for legal compliance; require each governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to ensure compliance with specific sections of this Act no later than June 30, 2024; require the council and institutions to collaborate on a standardized procedure to consider denying transfer credit earned in courses dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and to develop data collection and reporting methods; authorize the Attorney General to bring an action for a writ of mandamus to compel the council or a public postsecondary education institution to comply; create a cause of action to permit a qualified individual to file a civil action against council or a public postsecondary education institution for injunctive relief and damages arising from a violation of this Act; waive sovereign and governmental immunity; prohibit retaliation; require each public postsecondary education institution to submit and publish a certified annual report on governmentally mandated discrimination to the Legislative Research Commission by October 1 each year; provide that a public postsecondary education institution or the council cannot claim a federal, state, judicial, contractual, or accreditation mandate as a defense to a civil action filed under this Act unless the policy, practice, or procedure upon which the complaint is founded is listed and clearly and accurately described in the public institution's annual report on governmentally mandated discrimination; require the council to develop and publish an annual assessment to evaluate intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at public postsecondary education institutions; require each institution to annually distribute the assessment to all students, faculty, and staff and publish the results; require each public postsecondary education institution to provide the Personnel Cabinet and State Treasurer the name, job title, duty station, salary or wages, and amount of any contracted severance or other form of post-employment compensation of each employee of the institution by the twentieth day of each month beginning January 1, 2025, and to post its itemized annual budget; amend KRS 164.020 to prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from approving a degree, certificate, or diploma program that is not aligned with Section 2 of this Act; direct the Council on Postsecondary Education to consider alignment with Section 2 of this Act when considering the elimination of an existing program; direct each public postsecondary education institution and the Council on Postsecondary Education to discontinue designated programs and follow designated procedures when implementing this Act; provide specific instructions for public postsecondary education institutions and the Council on Postsecondary Education to follow in implementing this Act; direct public postsecondary education institutions and the council to submit a report on implementation of this Act; require public postsecondary education institutions to submit a series of reports on historical employment data for diversity, equity, and inclusion employees; EFFECTIVE, in part, February 1, 2025; EMERGENCY.

KY SB147

PERFORMANCE
FAILED

AN ACT relating to adult-oriented businesses and declaring an emergency.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 231 to express the findings of the General Assembly relating to adult-oriented businesses and the need for regulation; define terms; establish distance parameters for the location of adult-oriented businesses in proximity to identified entities and locations; establish transition provisions for existing businesses; affirm the authority of local governmental units to supplement regulation of adult-oriented businesses; EMERGENCY.

Adult-oriented business" means an adult arcade, adult bookstore or video store, adult cabaret, adult theater, or any establishment that hosts sexually explicit drag performances or any performance involving sexual conduct; [...] "Drag performance" means a performance in which a performer sings, lip syncs, dances, reads, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment while exhibiting an exaggerated gender expression that is inconsistent with the biological sex of the performer using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers, and this expression is a caricatured, advertised, or featured aspect of the performance taken as a whole;

KY SB210

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to students.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 159 to allow the enrollment of a child on a part-time basis in a school district; establish conditions for the part-time enrollment; amend KRS 158.120 to prohibit a district's nonresident pupil policy from discriminating against any pupil on the basis of residential address, abilities, disability, race, ethnicity, sex, or socioeconomic status; require the policy be posted on the district website; prohibit charging tuition to any child; require a board of education to establish policies for a calculation to determine enrollment capacity; establish requirements for a district's nonresident pupil policy; require districts to report to the Kentucky Department of Education numbers related to nonresident pupils and require the department to publish the reports on the department's website, authorize the department to promulgate administrative regulations for nonresident enrollment appeals processes and forms; amend KRS 157.350 and 156.070 to conform.

No person standing in loco parentis nor the private school which employs him or her shall implement any curriculum or instruction addressing issues of gender identity, queer theory, gender ideology, or gender transition, without first providing notice of such curriculum or instruction to and obtaining the express written permission from each parent of each child who will participate in such curriculum or instruction. Parents shall be informed of the intention of such person or such private school to implement such curriculum or instruction and of the parent's right to inspect the curriculum or instructional material.

KY SB336

CIVIL RIGHTS
FAILED

AN ACT relating to sex-based classifications.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 61 to define "boy," "equal," "female," "girl," "male," "man," "sex," and "woman"; prohibit any state or local law, regulation, ordinance, or policy from treating males or females unfairly from similiarly situated members of the opposite sex, but permit separation of the sexes if in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness; provide a non-exhaustive list of examples of areas in which public entities may distinguish between the sexes; require any public school, public school district, state agency, department, local government, special district or any political subdivision of those entities that collects vital statistics to identify each person as either male or female; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights.

The Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights applies wherever Kentucky law or policy classifies people on the basis of sex or otherwise defines people as being male or female, men or women, or boys or girls

KY SB6

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to postsecondary institutions.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; provide that a student or employee of a public postsecondary education institution shall not be penalized, discriminated against, or receive any adverse treatment due to the individual's refusal to support or endorse any divisive concept; provide that a student or employee of a public postsecondary education institution shall not be required to endorse a specific ideology or political viewpoint to be eligible for hiring, contract renewal, tenure, promotion, or graduation and prohibit an institution from inquiring into the individual's political or social viewpoints; provide that any person aggrieved by a violation of this Act has a cause of action against the institution for damages and costs of no less than $1,000 and no more than $100,000 per violation; waive sovereign, governmental, and qualified immunity; require the job duties of any individual employed in a diversity, equity, and inclusion role to include the promotion of intellectual diversity; provide that nothing in the section shall be interpreted to infringe upon designated rights of an institution's ability to comply with state or federal law or accreditation standards; require each public postsecondary education institution to conduct a survey in 2025 and 2027 of the institution's students and employees to assess the campus climate with regard to diversity of thought and the respondents' comfort level in speaking freely on campus, regardless of political affiliation or ideology.

KY SB93

EDUCATION
FAILED

AN ACT relating to education.

Amend KRS 161.164 to prohibit that a local school district or public charter school from requiring a statement, pledge, or oath, other than to uphold general and federal law, the United States Constitution, and the Constitution of Kentucky, as a part of any recruitment, hiring, employment, promotion, disciplinary, or evaluation process; create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to define terms; prohibit public school districts and schools from expending any resources or funds to purchase membership in, or goods and services from, any organization that discriminates on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or religion; to prohibit public school districts and schools from expending any resources or funds on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging or political or social activism; prohibit public school districts from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; provide a limited exception for compliance with state or federal law; amend KRS 158.4416 to strike all references to trauma-informed approach; amend KRS 158.4414 to conform.