Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) won a second term in office in last year’s election. Trading on his family name — his father served two terms as governor in the ‘00s and ‘10s — Beshear positioned himself as a moderate Democrat, but he has governed to the left in a red state.
Beshear’s latest far-left move comes in the form of an executive order he issued this week. The order bans so-called “conversion therapy” for minors, which families can use to help a sexually confused child realize that he or she isn’t gay.
The press release accompanying the executive order trumpets Beshears’ LGBTQ efforts, some of which ran afoul of the legislature: “Gov. Beshear was the first sitting Governor in Kentucky’s history to participate in the Statewide Fairness Rally, and in 2021, he proclaimed June as Pride Month for the first time in the commonwealth. Last year, the Governor vetoed a bill that banned access to gender-affirming health care and restricted bathroom access. The supermajorities in both of Kentucky’s legislative chambers voted to override the veto.”
“The Commonwealth of Kentucky cannot reach its full potential until and unless it is free from discrimination by or against any citizen,” the executive order began. “Team Kentucky must exhibit the diversity and resilience of the people of the Commonwealth. Discrimination against our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters, including our LGBTQ+ youth, is unacceptable in this Commonwealth.”
Citing statistics from the radical LGBTQ organization The Trevor Project — so you know there’s totally no agenda there — Beshear carps about how gays are always facing discrimination. He lays stats about threats of “conversion therapy” alongside stats about suicidal thoughts with no definitive connection between them.
Related: Standing Up to the LGBTQ Bullies
But how common is “conversion therapy”? It’s hard to say. The only reports on so-called “conversion therapy” come from agenda-driven, pro-LGBTQ groups, and there’s little more than a vague definition of what the practice consists of. (Even using more fair-minded search engines that Google, nearly all the information I found in searches came from blatantly left-wing sources.)
Mainstream media stories about “conversion therapy” rely on these far-left reports for statistics and anecdotes. One Time Magazine report from last year points out that 48 states allow “conversion therapy” with 1,300 practitioners. The source of all this information was none other than the Trevor Project.
The executive order also doesn’t give “conversion therapy” a strict definition. However, it does oh-so-helpfully explain that “conversion therapy” isn’t transgender treatment, “coping, social support, and identity exploration and development,” or any “neutral” advice to gay people. Instead, the way Beshear describes “conversion therapy” in the order is dangerous.
“‘Conversion therapy’ means any practice, treatment, or intervention that seeks or purports to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender,” the executive order explains. The most dangerous word in that sentence is “any.”
Using this characterization of “conversion therapy,” a pastor or counselor who helps a person work through his or her same-sex attraction with an eye on the biblical sexual ethic violates the order. A therapist who says, “Are you sure you’re gay? Let’s talk about it,” could run afoul of the commonwealth. The order even makes it difficult for anyone dealing with same-sex attraction who wants to stop that behavior to seek help.
While the order doesn’t criminalize “conversion therapy,” anyone who practices it based on this vague definition could lose accreditation, licensing, or state and federal funds. But what’s to stop Beshear from making “conversion therapy” and anything else that falls under that far-too-broad umbrella a crime?
Albert Mohler, who is president of a seminary in Kentucky, said in his podcast on Thursday:
At least by this definition it would affect, it would even outlaw a parent statement to a child. Now, they are going to say it doesn’t cover conversations inside the family. And as you look at some of the technical language, it is mostly addressed to those who are licensed by the state or those who are in child care programs by the state. But as you look at the logic of this executive order, let’s be clear, this would endanger the right of any Christian church, of any Christian evangelical congregation in the state of Kentucky to hold to a consistent position on this when it comes to minors. It would include Christian schools and for that matter, at least in terms of those who would admit minors under the age of 18, it would apply to Christian colleges and other institutions, Christian ministries in the state.
Beshear is setting a dangerous precedent with this executive order. He and Kentucky’s Democrats are so beholden to the Pride lobby that the governor is threatening health professionals who dare to practice centuries of mainstream Christian doctrine. For a man who claims to be a Christian (although he attends a church in the liberal Disciples of Christ denomination of the Christian Church), Beshear’s walk doesn’t match his talk.
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