KY Democrats denounce ‘dangerously confused’ anti-DEI bill that passes Senate

A bill that aims to block diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives promoting or endorsing “discriminatory concepts” at Kentucky’s public colleges and universities was approved by the Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 6 from Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, seeks to curtail DEI practices that affect students and staff in a variety of campus settings, including non-credit classes, seminars, workshop, trainings and orientations.

“I offer this bill to counter a trend in higher education in our colleges and universities attempting to exclude in employment or deny in promotion (people) . . . who do not conform to liberal ideologies fashionable in our universities,” Wilson said on the Senate floor.

“Diversity of thought should be welcome,” he said. “But we’ve seen a trend of forcing faculty, in order to remain employed, to formally endorse a set of beliefs that may be contrary to their own.”

The bill passed largely along party lines, 26-7. It will next go to a House committee.

Offering some insight into where constituents fall on the issue, earlier on Tuesday, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky released a Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy survey of 625 registered Kentucky voters, 71% of whom agreed that “businesses and institutions should be allowed to make decisions regarding their own diversity, equity and inclusion education and training programs, without government interference.”

The poll was conducted from January 31 to February 4.

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Concepts blocked under Wilson’s bill include the idea that any individual is “inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously;” any idea that suggests “all Americans are not created equal;” any belief that “ascribes character traits, values, moral or ethical codes, privileges . . . to an individual because of (their) race;” and teaching that “promotes division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class, or class of people.”

The proposal won approval from a Senate Education Committee last week. That’s where Wilson characterized his bill as a way to “counter a trend” in public colleges and universities “attempting to exclude in employment . . . scholars or professors that do not conform to liberal ideologies.”

Wilson on Tuesday again referenced a University of Kentucky student’s testimony last week in committee who said she was reprimanded by a women’s studies professor for using transphobic language in class. The student, Rebekah Keith, told committee members she “believes there are only two genders and that men cannot become women.”

Being told she couldn’t defend this belief in class, Wilson said, is an example of students “not (being) able to freely express themselves.”

But Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said there were already mechanisms in place to deal with free speech incidents like this. He called the examples Wilson has cited as occurring in Kentucky as “scant” and “hearsay.”

Neal, who voted against the bill, said, “We don’t want to put ourselves in a big government position where we’re micromanaging” public colleges and universities.”

He called the bill a product of society being in a “period of reaction.”

The bill, should it pass into law, will be “an instrument to some who (have) ill intent and a reflection of a reaction that confirms we are still on a journey.”

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, called the bill “dangerously confused.”

“I am sorry people in our society feel so intimidated by other groups that they literally feel they have to pass laws to protect themselves,” she added. “That is so sad, but that is what I see this bill as being.”

Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, said the bill is opaque, its definitions not clearly defined, that it’s likely to have a “chilling effect” on college campuses, and will likely “end in litigation.”

“It’s designed to limit discussion,” Webb said.

Republicans who spoke on the Senate floor embraced the bill.

“I just feel that this diversity thing, whether it’s in corporate America, University of Kentucky, or wherever it is, is being blown way out of proportion,” said Sen. John Schickel, R-Union. He called current DEI policies “reverse discrimination.”

“Of course we want diversity. Of course we want people to belong. This is the United States of America,” said Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield. “But we’re not seeing that in our institutions.”

Tichenor said DEI policies have “gotten out of hand,” and called it “mission creep.” She referenced an email she received from a college student who asked her to vote against the bill.

In the email, Tichenor said, the student referenced his inherent “privilege.”

“Gee, I wonder where he got that idea,” Tichenor said, calling the fact that students are taught to “feel bad” about their race a “prime reason why we need to file this bill.”

Sen. Philip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, said the “vitriol” on college campuses has “done more to divide us than unite us.”

“I don’t think someone who is white should be taught they are a bad person . . . any more than an African American should be taught they are oppressed,” Wheeler said.

Wilson’s bill to regulate DEI is one of three so far proposed by Republicans this legislative session.

Senate Bill 93, filed by Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, would block public K-12 schools, districts and charter schools from promoting, supporting or maintaining “divisive concepts,” which it defines as any “programs, trainings or activities that advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, or promote or engage in political or social activism.”

Meredith’s bill also proposes eliminating statutory requirements that school mental health counselors take a “trauma-informed approach” when supporting students. That approach, Meredith said, is a “backdoor” to a “DEI agenda.”

A third anti-DEI bill, House Bill 9 from Rep. Jennifer Decker, would dismantle and defund all DEI offices across the state’s public colleges and universities and eliminate race-based scholarships and end administrative promotion or justification of so-called “discriminatory concepts,” such as white privilege.

It would also bar public higher education institutions from providing any “differential” or “preferential” treatment to a student or employee based on race, religion, sex, color or national origin.