7/23/2023 0 Comments Wvia radio echoes hearts of space![]() Wise took the lead on anti-trans legislation this session, starting by targeting the state's progressive education commissioner, Jason Glass. Berg looked on, shaking her head in disbelief. Max Wise introduced Senate Bill 150 to much applause from his colleagues on the floor. Karen Berg addresses the Senate Standing Committee on Families & Children at the Capitol Annex on March 14, 2023, in Frankfort, Ky. It's exactly what her son Henry fought against. It also allows teachers to refer to students by their gender assigned at birth. More than two months later, she watched her Republican colleagues, one by one, vote to override a veto on Senate Bill 150, banning all gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Kentucky including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.įor public schools, the bill restricts which bathrooms students can use and puts limits on discussing gender and sexuality. Please, let's not go down there,' " she recalls. "I got there, and I stood up and I just quietly said 'Please, let's not politicize this session. I had to learn how to get dressed."īut she kept her chin up, rolled her shoulders back and walked into the Senate chamber, dreading that her legislature, like so many others, would face multiple bills to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. Two weeks later, Berg was awash with grief but had to pick herself up and go to the state Capitol for the 2023 legislative session. He knew exactly what was going to happen," she says. "-and then he went home, and he went out, and he killed himself. because our lives are quite literally on the line-"Īs she reads, her voice withers and collapses into a deep sigh. "We must all work to repudiate anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and falsehoods in the strongest possible terms. it's the closest thing I have to a suicide note," Berg says.įourteen hours before her son ended his life, Berg says he put together a press release for the Human Rights Campaign, where he worked as a deputy press secretary for politics. He was just 24 and a prominent LGBTQ rights activist who inspired his mother to run for office.Īs Berg thumbs through pages of her son's work, she finds the last piece of writing he left, one that foreshadowed a new law in his home state of Kentucky. In December last year, Berg's transgender son Henry Berg-Brosseau died by suicide. Karen Berg had to deal with the most devastating thing a mother could imagine. ![]() If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 9-8-8, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
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