Gov. Andy Besher vetoed a piece of legislation Friday morning that would place sweeping bans on gender-affirming care for transgender children in the Commonwealth.
The bill would ban puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery, or hormones. It would also prohibit schools from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms and force transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with their biological sex.
“I believe Senate Bill 150 tears away the freedom of parents to make important and difficult medical decisions for their kids,” Beshear said during his Thursday press conference.
Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Kentucky legislature and are expected to override Beshear’s veto once they return from veto break on March 29.
In a statement, Republican Party of Kentucky spokesperson Sean Southard said Beshear is a “radical” and is giving in to “special left-wing interests.”
“Most people agree that you need to be a certain age before participating in certain activities, like consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes,” RPK spokesman Sean Southard said. “Not Andy Beshear. Andy Beshear thinks it’s okay for children to have access to life-altering sex change surgery and drugs before they turn 18.”
Beshear issued his first vetoes Friday morning. He vetoed several pieces of legislation, including House Bill 4 — a bill dealing with electric generating facilities — and House Bill 329, which would allow the state treasurer to end government contracts with the input of a legislative committee.
Earlier in the week, he indicated he would veto Senate Bill 150, telling reporters on multiple occasions that it’s clear how he feels about the bill and often saying the bill will cause an increase in transgender teen suicide.
“You look at the American Medical Association, The Trevor project, and all the data is very clear,” Beshear said. “We should be in the business of preventing teen suicides and never contributing to it.”
In 2022, the Trevor Project conducted a survey on LGBTQ mental health and found suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-24. Further, LGBTQ-questioning youth are at a significantly increased risk.
House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) told LINK nky Friday morning that this bill is purely to score political points in a gubernatorial election year.
“I think the push for this is coming from a purely political vantage point,” Robert said. “It’s a calculated messaging strategy on the majority party side that they think is going to help them win elections this year and the constitutional seats that are up for election, and that will be part of their messaging.”
Roberts also called the bill “one of the worst anti-LGBTQ bills in the country.”
David Walls, the executive director for the Kentucky Family Foundation, said the bill is something wanted by the majority of Kentuckians and legislators.
“There was a lot of heart and desire among a number of legislators to address some of these core problems,” Walls said. “And the overarching theme of all those was to protect our kids first from irreparable physical harm with these medical interventions that are just flat-out preying on children.”
Senate Bill 150 is sponsored by Sen. Max Wise (R-Campbellsville), the running mate of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft. Rep. David Meade (R-Stanford) carried the bill in the House and cited a statistic that 66% of Kentuckians want this legislation.
But Meade wouldn’t cite the source for the statistic, and House Communications staff didn’t respond with where Meade received the numbers.
A February Mason-Dixon Poll found that 71% of Kentuckians opposed any such law, with 83% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans opposing any such measure.
While Republicans say Kentuckians and legislators want this type of legislation, they moved to pass it under a shroud of secrecy.
Beshear also expressed concern about how the bill was passed. Republicans used a method called a “shell” bill by replacing language in another bill with the language of the bill they want to pass.
The legislation — which switched to multiple bill numbers and took a dizzying number of different forms in the final 24 hours — ended up jammed into Senate Bill 150, a bill that initially gave teachers the option on whether or not to use a students’ chosen pronouns.
The move to pass it started in the House when a surprise House Education meeting was called during lunch for Senate Bill 150 with newly added language similar to a law in South Dakota that bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery, and cross-sex hormones.
Republicans then rushed the bill to the House floor, where a vote quickly took place, but not before Democrats spent nearly two hours trying to stall it.
“This shouldn’t be a trust exercise,” Beshear said. “Every legislator should have the time, as should the public, to read anything that’s coming up for a committee or for a legislative vote.”
Before the bill reached the House, its language was included in House Bill 470. NKY Sen. Gex Williams (R-Verona) introduced an amendment that mimicked a law in South Dakota that bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery, and cross-sex hormones — the first time this type of language was introduced in Kentucky.
While the measure stalled in the Senate, the language from that bill moved into SB150.
This legislative session — a 30-day short session — was expected to be relatively slow, according to leadership in both the House and Senate. However, the session delved into a conversation over what proponents of SB 150 call “parental rights” and opponents call “anti-trans.”
“Each session takes on a life of its own,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown), whose district stretches into southern Kenton County.
Thayer also said while leadership expected the session to be slow, the legislature is driven by its members.
“As far as the parental rights issue, this is something that is happening all over the country,” he said. “There is a lot of concern about parental rights in schools. I think it’s partially due to COVID and all the virtual learning, and parents got a front-row seat to what was happening in schools everywhere.”