(This one red state listened to a red politician.)
Defeat of Bill 470 becomes personal for one Republican
Former State Rep. Jerry Miller sat in Frankfort on Wednesday — barely holding it together — urging a Senate committee to defeat House Bill 470, a measure that would prohibit doctors from giving any sort of gender-affirming care to transgender children.
“It was excruciating,” he said a day later.
He urged the committee to get out of the way and to allow parents and doctors to do what they think is best and help the children who were born in the wrong body. He appeared on the verge of tears at several points in his testimony.
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He’s not some woke crusader.
Miller is a Republican who served in the administration of Ernie Fletcher before he was elected to represent an eastern Jefferson County district in the state House. He was a supporter of former Gov. Matt Bevin — the most rigid of GOP ideologues. He’s a rock-ribbed conservative.
But he’s also a grandpa. And a good one.
See, his grandchild — born into the world with all the outward signs of being a boy — is 7 years old and has never acted like anything but a girl.
Miller said he was excited when Jonah was born — after having two granddaughters — looking forward to the day when he could play ball with his grandson and do other things a granddad does with a little boy.
“That’s just not been my reality,” he said.
Jonah’s never been into sports, preferring dolls instead. When playing dress-up, Jonah put on princess gowns.
When Jonah was 4 years old, Miller told the committee, his wife asked if he didn’t like being a boy.
“Inside, I feel like a girl,” was Jonah’s reply.
At 4. Throughout his testimony, Miller struggled with the terminology and frequently used the words “he” and “him,” sometimes correcting himself, and other times just letting the wrong word hang in the air.
“I still screw up the pronoun thing,” Miller confessed. “Regardless of anything, I’m going to love my grandchild and fight for what I think is best for Jonah.”
It’s clearly not been easy for Miller or his family.
He said his wife came to grips with it before he did. He thought Jonah was just trying to be like her older sister.
“I hoped he would grow out of it, but that didn’t happen,” he told the committee. “Do I wish Jonah was a quote ‘normal boy’? Absolutely yes. But Jonah is not.”
Miller’s story is not unlike those of others who love transgender children and grandchildren.
Later in the committee meeting, state Sen. Karen Berg testified that her transgender son, Henry, began lining up to go to the restroom with the boys at preschool when he was just 2 years old.
After fighting for years for gay and transgender rights, Henry committed suicide in December.
Miller seems to still be working through the emotions of it and trying to understand.
During his testimony, he said he was mainly talking about hormonal therapies and believes doctors should be able to prescribe medication that would block trans children from going through puberty.
“Puberty is irreversible,” he said. “By the time Jonah is 18 – beard, Adam’s apple, deeper voice – and if it goes like it often goes, he’ll be persecuted for that if he dresses as a girl.”
Miller told me that if the original bill became law, his daughter would likely move out of state where she could get the medical care Jonah needs.
Like I said, Miller isn’t some woke lefty.
Last year, he voted for the bill that prohibited trans children from playing school sports.
He said he’s not sure how he would have voted on HB 470 if it came up when he was in the legislature and before he understood what was going on with Jonah — likening it to people who predict how they would act in combat if they had never been at war.
“I like to think I would do the right thing, but I just don’t know,” he said.
What legislators have to understand is that no matter what they pass, their actions aren’t somehow going to cause transgender children to grow up and suddenly begin identifying with the sex they were assigned at birth.
“This bill condemns children into a more difficult life than they’ve already been born into,” Miller said at the hearing.
Later Wednesday, Sen. Danny Carroll, chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, introduced an amendment weakening the bill substantially. He said at the hearing the measure went too far.
While Carroll’s changes improve the bill, that doesn’t mean it will pass in that form — even if the Senate adopts the measure as he’s now proposed. Funny things happen to bills in the waning days of the legislature.
They ought to heed the words of a former colleague who simply loves his transgender grandchild.
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal. com.
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