On March 29, Republican lawmakers in Kentucky overturned Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a bill to ban transgender youths from gender-affirming healthcare and restrict which toilets they use in public schools, media outlets reported.
Both chambers of Kentucky's Republican-led general assembly voted overwhelmingly to override last week's veto by Beshear, who is running for re-election in November, Reuters noted.
Beshear said the bill would increase youth suicides and permit excessive government interference in personal healthcare decisions.
Several pro-LGBTQ+ organizations condemned the bill. Cathryn Oakley, Human Rights Campaign's (HRC's) state legislative director and senior counsel, said in a press release, "Kentucky's legislators show no shame. This discriminatory billwhich they snuck through the legislature in the final hours of sessionis nothing but a desperate and cruel effort by extremist politicians in Kentucky to stigmatize, marginalize and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender youth."
In addition, Fairness Campaign Executive Director Chris Hartman said, "While we lost the battle in the legislature, our defeat is temporary. We will not lose in court. And we are winning in so many other ways. Thousands of Kentucky kids came to the Capitol today to make their voices heard against the worst anti-trans bill in the nation. They are our hope for a Kentucky future that is more fair, more just, and more beautifully diverse and accepting than ever before."
Kentucky Sen. Karen Bergthe mother of the late Henry Berg-Brousseau, a transgender employee of HRC who took his own life at the end of 2022said, "Trans children exist and trans children deserve to be allowed to exist. Today, Kentucky's legislators have chosen to promote hate and disinformation instead of standing up to it."
Also, on the same day, West Virginia passed a law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth after about 10 other states approved laws restricting or outlawing medical treatments for trans minors.
Andrew Davis