Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is pushing a pediatric heart doctor & his family out of Louisiana

Pediatrician Jake Kleinmahon says, “The message is very clear.”

“This is one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do,” says Kleinmahon, a father of two young children and medical director of Ochsner Hospital for Children’s Pediatric Heart Transplant in New Orleans. “It is absolutely heartbreaking thinking about leaving my patients who many of them really rely on me.”

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But Kleinmahon and his husband Tom, a chemical engineer for Shell, say Louisiana left them no choice. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the state has forced them to abandon their friends, colleagues, and the life they’ve built in New Orleans.

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Kleinmahon and his family are moving to New York.

“Over the last year, Tom and I have watched state legislatures across the south pass anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Louisiana’s last legislative session was no different,” Kleinmahon posted to Instagram this week. “The message is very clear. Tom and I have discussed at length the benefits of continuing to live in the South, as well as the toll it takes on our family. Because of this, we are leaving Louisiana. Our children come first. We cannot continue to raise them in this environment.”

The Louisiana legislatures anti LGBTQ legislation is driving a highly specialized pediatric doctor, in New Orleans, to leave the state with his family. pic.twitter.com/zQEVTuZf5G

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) July 30, 2023

The couple and their two kids, 4 and 6, will leave behind a state whose legislature is dominated by a Republican super-majority in thrall to far-right Christian nationalists and determined to erase LGBTQ+ identity from public life in the Bayou State.

In June alone, the red state legislature passed three bills aimed at LGBTQ+ youth and families: a copycat “Don’t Say Gay” bill modeled on Florida’s law banning discussion of gender identity and sexuality in public schools; a ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors; and a bill prohibiting students’ preferred pronouns without parental permission.

While Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed all three bills — the trans health care ban veto was later overridden — Kleinmahon doesn’t hold out much hope for tolerance in the state.

“Our plans were to stay and retire in New Orleans and raise our family here,” Kleinmahon told Mother Jones in an interview after his post. “We really put roots down here. We’ve become involved in the community and are very happy here.”

But over the last year, Kleinmahon said, “We’ve realized that the state legislature of Louisiana as a whole does not care about our family and does not care about the LGBTQ community. It was most striking when the Louisiana Senate Education Committee was discussing House Bill 466, which is a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. My husband and I watched that livestream, and when the people who were against the passage of that bill spoke, the Republican lawmakers walked out of the room and had no interest in hearing about the impact that this would have on children and the community.”

That hearing and the passage of June’s “slate of hate” was the “breaking point” for the couple.

“We are leaving Louisiana,” Kleinmahon’s Instagram post read. “Our children come first.”