How redistricting in Kentucky could disproportionately harm people of color, LGBTQ folks

More than 440 kids were placed in quarantine after just one week back at school in a western Kentucky school district that refused to implement a mask mandate. At the same time, Kentucky’s count of new COVID-19 cases hit its third-highest daily total since the beginning of the pandemic.

Adding insult to injury, the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the General Assembly’s 2021 legislative restrictions on Gov. Andy Beshear’s emergency powers. Result: dissolving Kentucky’s entire state of emergency for the pandemic and wreaking havoc on our ability to protect Kentuckians from the COVID surge. The legislature’s restrictions will also either eliminate or risk large amounts of COVID relief funding, expanded meals for children and families, measures to fight COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, worker’s compensation for front-line workers who contract COVID, and steps taken to increase health care capacity.  And will prevent the governor from issuing a general mask mandate.

Those were among the first legislative actions taken by this Republican-led legislature in its 2021 session. Another was House Bill 2, a law that removes authority from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services —  but only regarding abortion — and gives it to Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is openly hostile to abortion rights and is not a medical professional.

The same politicians who have abandoned the real needs and fears of Kentuckians are also in charge of redrawing congressional maps that will change Kentucky for decades to come. 

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It is also no coincidence that these same elected officials in charge of our maps are the ones who work tirelessly to push regressive reproductive health care bills and bills targeting the LGBTQ community — all aimed at disproportionately harming people of color, women, people with low incomes and LGBTQ people. 

We have watched what a Republican supermajority means for access to abortion and it isn’t pretty or fair or, in most cases, legal. This is the fifth consecutive year anti-abortion lawmakers have introduced legislation in Kentucky to take away the right to basic care. This year alone, the General Assembly passed two bills attacking abortion access. Instead of focusing on more pressing issues like the global pandemic and increasing access to health care, this Republican-led majority is obsessed with controlling bodily autonomy.

It also passed a constitutional amendment (HB 91) that paves the way for a complete abortion ban by amending the Kentucky Constitution to state that it provides no protection for abortion or funding for abortion. It will appear on our 2022 ballot. 

State politicians are also working overtime to attack the rights of transgender people. As of March 82 anti-transgender legislation bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country in 2021, the highest annual total ever. Kentucky legislators haven’t wasted any time attacking the trans community either, having introduced the discriminatory anti-trans “bathroom bill” as well as bills that would criminalize health care providers for offering medically necessary gender-affirming care and discriminate against transgender student athletes. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry opposes legislation restricting gender-affirming care because research has shown that delaying access to care increases young peoples’ risk of suicidal ideation and other poor mental health outcomes. 

Can we challenge these measures in court? Yes, but Mitch McConnell and former President Trump abused the judicial nomination process to stack the nation’s federal courts with conservative judges, many of whom hold records hostile to civil and reproductive rights.

The attitudes reflected in these legislative actions do not instill confidence in the upcoming redistricting process. The process should be people-powered and not politically motivated to retain power.

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A people-powered process for drawing fair and legal districts and full access to voting are fundamental to democracy and impact how Kentuckians’ voices are heard on issues like access to reproductive health care, funding for schools, infrastructure projects and public health. According to a  2019 report, public health has been increasingly tied to the health of our democracy over the last decade — in states where the effort required to vote is highest, life expectancy is the lowest.

All of these issues are of one piece. To make the promise of democracy real for everyone — to achieve a government that is truly of, by, and for the people — we must insist our legislature strengthen our freedom to vote and draw districts that ensure fair representation. That’s how we hold our elected leaders accountable to their constituents.

Kim Greene is a Louisville attorney and a member of the board of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky.