FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Democratic Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives says his chamber will not consider legislation recently passed by the Senate that would prohibit students of one gender from using school restrooms designated for the other.

In other words, the House will not act to keep boys out of girl’s restrooms, and vice versa.

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The state Senate passed a bill earlier this week that would cement that concept in state law. It was introduced in response to a controversial policy at Louisville’s Atherton High School, which allows transgender students to use restrooms that match their perceived gender.

A number of district residents openly protested the policy when it was adopted, to no avail.

Brian Wilkerson, a spokesman for House Speaker Greg Stumbo, said there isn’t time in the current legislative session to deal with the bill. He noted that Kentucky only has 30 day legislative sessions in odd-numbered years.

Wilkerson also said the issue is better addressed by local school districts.

Wilkerson admitted that the House leadership has not polled parents or students around the state to determine how strongly they feel about the issue.

“We have a limited number of days, and the first four days are reserved for administrative functions,” Wilkerson told EAGnews. “We’ve got a lot of major issues to deal with in 20-plus days of work.”

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But the busy legislative schedule is not the only reason why the bill is dead on arrival in the House. Speaker Stumbo is clearly hostile to the legislation.

Stumbo recently criticized the Senate for spending legislative time “deciding where kids can go to the bathroom,” according to the Louisville Courier. “That’s a heck of a weighty issue for the state of Kentucky,” he added with obvious sarcasm.

But others feel the issue is very serious and deserves the attention of the state House.

Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for the Family Foundation of Kentucky, said he believes the legislation would pass the House, with the support of many in the Democratic majority, if Stumbo would allow it to be considered.

“I think there are a lot of other issues of lesser importance that will be dealt with,” Cothran said. “Safety and privacy are important. If the Speaker doesn’t think they are important he has every right to think that. These are things that should not be left up to local control. They are important enough to put into policy governing all schools.

“I think the Democrats running the state House are in a bad position. They can either let the bill pass, which it would, or kill it. I think I lot of people would be interested to know that the Democratic leadership in the State House killed a bill designed to provide safety and privacy for school children.”

Cothran, whose organization helped draft the legislation, said Stumbo should engage the public on the restroom issue before disregarding it.

“Our Facebook page had an ad asking people how they would feel about their 14-year-old daughter being forced to shower with a biological male, and it reached over 38,000 people,” said Cothran. “There were quite a few comments. We’re thinking that 38,000 shows there’s a lot of interest in this issue.”

Cothran stressed that the legislation is not designed to be hostile to transgender students.

He said the idea is to protect the dignity and privacy of the vast majority of students who would rather not use restrooms with the opposite biological gender. He also said the safety of transgender students is a major concern.

Cothran noted that the legislation would give schools the leverage to provide transgender students with designated unisex restrooms, or access to staff restrooms.

“The privacy issue has more to do with the average student, but the safety issue has more to do with the transgender student,” he said. “How is allowing a biological female into a male restroom going to reduce harassment? If anything it’s going to make it worse.”