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Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Conversion therapy protected in Kentucky as legislature overrides Beshear veto
Supporters of LGBTQ+ rights draped banners in the Kentucky Capitol on the day Republicans finalized enactment a new law protecting conversion therapy and barring Medicaid from paying for transgender care. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) FRANKFORT — Kentucky's Republican-controlled legislature voted largely along party lines to override Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a bill to cancel his restrictions on conversion therapy and prohibit Medicaid from covering transgender-affirming medical care. That means House Bill 495 will become law. It has an emergency clause, meaning that will happen immediately. In a statement after both chambers overrode the veto, Chris Hartman, the executive director of the Fairness Campaign, called it a 'a sad day in Kentucky.' 'HB 495 opens the door to 'conversion torture' and denies Medicaid coverage for transgender healthcare,' Hartman said. Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that attempts to alter gender expression and sexual attraction that diverges from heterosexual normativity 'with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome,' according to the The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.' In 2024, Beshear signed an executive order aimed at ending the practice on Kentucky minors. 'Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science and causes significant long term damage to our kids, including increased rates of suicide, anxiety and depression,' he wrote in his veto message on HB 495. 'As leaders and policy makers, we should be in the business of protecting our citizens and kids from harm, not subjecting them to discredited methods that jeopardize their health, well being and safety.' Beshear's veto message did not mention the bill's ban on Medicaid covering gender-affirming medical care. Early Wednesday afternoon, the House voted to override the veto 78-20 along party lines. Democrats reiterated many of their previous objections, saying the bill was an 'overreach' and 'oppression.' 'I am here to stand in the gap between our trans friends, neighbors and constituents and the oppression that this body is inflicting on them,' said Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville. 'This is going to be one of those times when we look back in history and say, 'was I on the right side of history?'' Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, appeared to invoke a Lady Gaga song when she said, 'you're born this way' to LGBTQ+ Kentuckians while asking her colleagues to let Beshear's veto stand. Marzian said she hopes lawmakers don't 'go after' another minority population next year 'to make us feel good about ourselves. I hope it's not the disabled or mentally ill that we decide are less than us,' she said. Rep. Joshua Watkins, D-Louisville, said he's heard from constituents who are 'scared and terrified' of the legislation. Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, said that no matter where anyone stands on conversion therapy, Beshear 'overreached' his powers by issuing an executive order on the matter. A few hours later, the Senate voted 31-6 to override the veto. Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, sided with Republicans in voting to go against Beshear. Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said it is 'absolutely appalling that we can sit here over and over and over again and legislate against a small, small group of people in this country that, by the way, do exist and do have every right to exist.' 'We know that kids who were forced to go through conversion therapy are twice as likely to attempt suicide,' Berg said. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. 'Why in the heck do we do this over and over and over again? Get over your hate,' Berg said. 'Let people live their lives the way they choose to.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Beshear vetoes conversion therapy bill
At the 2025 Fairness Rally, Gov. Andy Beshear promised to veto a bill that's meant to cancel his restrictions on conversion therapy. The rally is photographed from the vantage of the Abraham Lincoln statue's boot, March 11, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) Fulfilling a promise he made at this year's Fairness Rally, Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a bill that would cancel his administration's restrictions on conversion therapy and prohibit Medicaid from covering transgender-affirming medical care. The Republican-controlled legislature reconvenes on Thursday for the last two days of the 2025 legislative session, at which time lawmakers can easily override Beshear's veto. In his veto letter, Beshear called House Bill 495 an 'unconstitutional infringement' that 'promotes a dangerous and discriminatory practice that has led to the deaths of Kentucky children.' Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that attempts to alter gender expression and sexual attraction that diverges from heterosexual normativity 'with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome,' according to the The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.' In 2024, Beshear signed an executive order aimed at ending the practice on Kentucky minors. 'Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science and causes significant long term damage to our kids, including increased rates of suicide, anxiety and depression,' he wrote in his veto message on HB 495. 'As leaders and policy makers, we should be in the business of protecting our citizens and kids from harm, not subjecting them to discredited methods that jeopardize their health, well being and safety.' Beshear's veto message did not mention the bill's ban on Medicaid covering gender-affirming medical care. veto
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘We will not be erased:' LGBTQ+ Kentuckians rally for fairness in Capitol
Attendees at the 2025 Fairness Rally hold signs. March 11, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear plans to veto a bill that would undo his executive order restricting conversion therapy in Kentucky, should it pass the legislature and reach his desk. He made the promise at the 2025 Fairness Rally, held in the Capitol rotunda Tuesday. Beshear, who made history in 2020 as the first sitting governor to attend a fairness rally, called conversion therapy 'torture.' 'It has been discredited, and it should not be happening in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,' Beshear said, to cheers from the crowd gathered. The Republican-controlled legislature has the votes to easily overturn any veto. Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that attempts to alter a person's sexuality. Specifically, it attempts to alter gender expression and sexual attraction that diverges from heterosexual normativity, 'with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome,' according to the The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.' In 2024, Beshear signed an executive order aimed at ending the practice on Kentucky minors. Speaking Tuesday, he touted his record on LGBTQ+ issues, including vetoing the 2023 Senate Bill 150, which banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. He called the legislation, which became law despite his veto, 'the nastiest piece of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that this state had ever seen.' 'I know a lot of people are scared right now about what the president is going to do next, and your rights being in danger,' Beshear said. 'To our LGBTQ Kentuckians, we're here for you. We see you, we love you and we support you.' When introducing Beshear, Chris Hartman, the executive director for the Fairness Campaign, praised him for appearing at every Fairness Rally since becoming governor. 'He's the most pro-equality governor in the history of the commonwealth of Kentucky and if we are lucky, he just might be the most pro-equality president,' Hartman said. The crowd cheered and chanted 'Andy, Andy, Andy' to this. Beshear was joined by a slate of Democratic politicians, lawmakers and advocates who criticized other bills they said are discriminatory toward the LGBTQ+ community and called on more LGBTQ+ people to run for office. Speakers included Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, Senate Minority Leader Gerald Neal, Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas, Lexington Councilwoman Emma Curtis, Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, and others. In addition to the conversion therapy bill, the Fairness Campaign opposes Senate Bill 2, a high-priority bill that would bar the use of public funds to offer gender-affirming care to transgender inmates in Kentucky, affecting about 67 people. Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said those in support of legislation to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public institutions 'are trying to figure out who they do not want in their society' and 'trying to legislate a way to keep you out.' 'These people who are writing … these bills, trying to get them passed through our Senate, are bigots. They are racists, they are homophobic and they are misogynists,' said Berg, who lost her transgender son in 2022 to suicide. The National Sucide Prevention Lifeline is 988. 'But we do not give up. We do not give in. We keep marching. We keep showing up, we keep being proud of who we are, because that is what God wants us to do,' Berg added. Sen. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, lamented the anti-DEI bill making its way through the legislature, saying a few hours after the rally she would have to 'go debate something that should not even be on the table.' 'This work is difficult. It's hard,' added Herron, Kentucky's first openly LGBTQ+ female senator. 'This is our civil rights movement. This is our time to show up. This is our time to organize. This is our time to stand together.' Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, said the DEI and conversion therapy bills are 'designed to be cruel' and 'to inflict harm and to put people in a box or to put them back in their place.' 'These measures don't just threaten policies. They threaten people — real lives, real families,' said Camuel. 'The anti-diversity, equity and inclusion bill isn't just an attack on programs. It's an attempt to erase the beautiful diversity that makes our community strong. And the conversion therapy bill, it is an attempt to make you hide your true self, the very thing that makes you and our commonwealth so very special.' Carma Bell Marshall, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2024 and was the first Black openly transgender person to run, said 'change is slow, but it is inevitable, because the truth is on our side' and 'humanity is on our side.' 'Right now, in Kentucky and across this country, we are witnessing attacks on trans lives in the form of cruel legislation, policies designed to erase, to silence, to make us feel small,' said Marshall. 'But let me tell you something: we are not small, we are not weak and we will not be erased.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
