Bill barring use of public funds on transgender treatments for Kentucky inmates advances

Yahoo

13-02-2025

From left, Hannah Callahan, Chris Hartman and Jacks Gilles testify against Senate Bill 2, barring gender-affirming care for Kentucky inmates, including phasing out transgender inmates' ongoing hormone treatment. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
FRANKFORT — Under a Republican bill advancing in the Kentucky legislature, a reported 67 incarcerated people would have to stop taking 'cross sex hormones' if the treatments are paid for with public funds.
Advocates who asked — in vain — members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against Senate Bill 2 said it's unfair to target such a small population.
Chris Hartman, the executive director of Kentucky's Fairness Campaign, called the bill 'a politically motivated attack against one of our smallest and most vulnerable communities.'
'You cannot tell me,' he said, 'that this is one of the most pressing issues for the vast majority of Kentuckians.'
The bill says public dollars cannot be used to fund a 'cosmetic service or elective procedure' for Kentucky inmates. It also says if a health care provider documents that ending a treatment would harm an inmate, use of the drug or hormone may be 'systematically reduced and eliminated.'
It passed Thursday's committee along party lines. One Republican took issue with forcing a transgender prisoner to end a medical treatment that's already underway.
'I think the intent of this bill is not to have the state pay for operations that are elective while people are in prison,' said Sen. Michael Nemes, R-Sheperdsville, who passed on the vote. 'I don't think the intent of the bill is to deny medical treatment that they're already receiving, and I need clarification that that does not stop that.'
Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, has filed similar legislation, House Bill 5. Hers, though, would allow continued treatment 'if the inmate was undergoing this treatment upon admission to the correctional facility and physical harm would result from its discontinuation,' according to the bill.
'Kentucky taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund cosmetic or elective procedures for individuals who have committed crimes against the Commonwealth and its citizens,' Moser said in a statement. 'I filed HB 5 to protect the use of taxpayer funding, ensuring that public funds are spent responsibly.'
Moser's bill covers plastic surgery, knee replacement surgery, breast augmentation, gender reassignment surgery and prescribing or administering cross-sex hormones. Wilson's focuses on the last two treatments.
SB 2's sponsor, Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, called it a 'simple' bill to address an issue that came up last year involving a Kentucky Department of Corrections regulation allowing transgender inmates to apply for gender-affirming treatments.
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, echoed concerns that the population in question is small.
'We're not damaging the state budget by treating 67 people,' he said. He called focusing on that many people 'a distortion of priorities.'
Wilson said he was aware of 67 inmates receiving 'cross sex hormones' but knows of no evidence Kentucky prisoners have undergone gender reassignment surgeries while incarcerated.
But, he added, 'it's in their policy that they will provide that, so we can't really trust that they're not going to do that.'
Kentucky Republicans condemn state policies on gender-affirming care for inmates
Gov. Andy Beshear has said he thinks inmates do not have the right to 'any and all medical surgeries paid for entirely by tax dollars.' In December, Beshear said a regulation under fire from Republicans would be pulled and aligned with an opinion from Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman that there is no federal requirement for the state to provide prisoners with gender-affirrming care.
Minority Floor Leader Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said 'I'm not going to put myself in the place of a doctor, which I have no training in,' when explaining his vote against the bill.
Four people testified against the bill, including transgender Kentuckians and other advocates.
Jacks Gilles, a Louisville psychologist, testified that ending the treatments laid out in the bill 'will result in negative health outcomes, including increased anxiety, disturbances in social and familial relationships, depression, suicidality and death.' The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.
'Gender affirming medical care is not experimental, it's not elective, and it's not cosmetic,' Gilles said. 'Treatment for gender dysphoria has proven to be necessary for individuals to lead happy, healthy lives, and is rooted in decades of scientific research, testing and practice.'
Emma Curtis, a Lexington council member and openly transgender Kentuckian, appealed to religion in her testimony. She read two Bible verses about treating everyone with kindness.
'I ask you to heed those words,' she said, 'to act in a Christ-like manner and to vote no on Senate Bill 2.'
Hannah Callahan, who lives in Lexington and was incarcerated 'many, many years' into being on hormones, 'a treatment my doctor considered medically necessary.'
Callahan said she couldn't access her weekly injection for a while after going to jail and 'being denied my medically necessary health care was far worse punishment than the one that I actually received from the actual judge.'
'Those weeks without medical treatment were an absolute nightmare. Suddenly, my body and my mind began to change and I had a rapid decrease in body fat and other physical side effects that triggered extreme gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia and mental anguish,' Callahan said. 'I suddenly became weak and lethargic. I spent most of my time in my bunk asleep. I didn't have a clear head, and my mind felt numb. My depression became so severe that I contemplated suicide.'
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.
Callahan called the experience 'cruelty' and told lawmakers if they passed Wilson's bill, 'you could be sentencing (people) to death without meaning to.'