Kentucky HB495 was passed in a nighttime vote on Friday, March 14. HB495 is designed to remove Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth. Republicans in Kentucky have a supermajority so even if Beshear vetoes, there is little to be done to override the votes.
These were the sponsors of HB495: David Hale (74), Chris Fugate (84), Kim King (55), Savannah Maddox (61), Shawn McPherson (22), and Bill Wesley (91).
The Fairness campaign released a statement on both HB495 and SB2
“Tonight the Kentucky General Assembly passed one of the most shameful bills in Kentucky history, House Bill 495,” said Chris Hartman, Executive Director of the Fairness Campaign in Louisville in the release. “They did it without public debate, in the dead of night, with no care for the Kentuckians’ lives that will be irrevocably impacted.
“I must ask why, with a supermajority in both chambers, the General Assembly felt they needed to sneak into HB495 a ban on transgender Medicaid coverage in one of the last committee meetings of the session and wait until almost midnight on the final day of concurrence to call the bill and prematurely end debate. If there were broad support among their members and constituents, they would have moved this issue through the regular legislative process. Instead, they have opened the door to ‘conversion torture’ by licensed therapists and denied medically necessary healthcare to thousands of Kentuckians under the cloak of darkness.”
Hartman also offered a statement about SB2 which would remove life-affirming care from individuals who are incarcerated. This bill is designed to hurt individuals who are transgender.
“All people in jails and prisons have a right to healthcare, including transgender Kentuckians,” said Hartman in the release. “Denying prescribed medications to transgender inmates under the guise of saving taxpayer dollars is cruel and wrong. It will cost Kentucky jails and prisons untold additional resources in mental health interventions and medical care. It’s a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Kentucky will lose in court, like all other states that have enacted this cruelty.”
The sponsors of SB2 are: M. Wilson, M. Deneen, J. Adams, G. Boswell, J. Carpenter, D. Carroll, D. Douglas, G. Elkins, S. Funke Frommeyer, R. Girdler, D. Givens, J. Higdon, J. Howell, S. Madon, A. Mays Bledsoe, C. McDaniel, S. Meredith, R. Mills, M. Nemes, M. Nunn, S. Rawlings, A. Reed, C. Richardson, B. Smith, R. Stivers, B. Storm, L. Tichenor, S. West, P. Wheeler, G. Williams, M. Wise
