Kentucky Passes Bill Banning Trans Treatments for Children, Instruction in Schools

Several arrested as protesters swarmed the state Capitol amid veto override

The Kentucky state legislature has successfully overridden Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill banning transgender treatments for children, but the move was met with a crush of protesters storming the state Capitol building last week.

Hundreds had convened outside the legislative session to voice their opposition to the bill, but as a local reporter for the Lexington Harald-Leader noted that "protesters moved inside once the legislature gaveled in, chanting and jeering loudly from the Capitol’s halls."

The event came just two days after a transgender person shot and killed six at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee and evoked comparisons to January 6, 2021, when pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of the 2020 election.

The Kansas State Police arrested 19 individuals for criminal trespassing.

The Republican majority state legislature met on Wednesday to override the veto from Beshear to pass Senate Bill 150, which bans so-called “gender-affirming” healthcare for children.

The bill also prohibits discussions surrounding gender identity and sexuality in public schools, requires schools to restrict bathrooms on the basis of biology, and allows teachers to decline to use a student’s preferred pronoun.