Let’s look at the final full week of Kentucky’s 2025 legislative session

This article was originally published by The Gallery Press by Olivia Krauth

This is the final full week of Kentucky’s 2025 legislative session and, honestly, thank God for that.

The GOP-dominated legislature has until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Friday night to pass anything controversial before a 10-day veto period starts. That’s when Gov. Andy Beshear — known supporter of DEI efforts and the LGBTQ+ community — can reject bills sent to him for consideration to be law, but lawmakers would still have two days at the end of the month to override him.

If anything anti-DEI or anti-LGBTQ+ *doesn’t* make it to Beshear by then, I would tell you it is safe to assume it is dead and won’t become law. But also this is Frankfort and apparently we can randomly try and block needed health care from transgender Kentuckians at 8:30 in the morning, so.

A note of caution: There is so, so, so much going on in Kentucky politics right now. For this evening, I’m focusing on the five bills left on the Queer Kentucky bill tracker I’ve been running all session that are still considered alive because what an absolute day for going after the LGBTQ+ community.

As always, you can fill out this survey real fast to let me know what questions you have or what bills you’d like an update on. (And yes, you can also submit people for the potential Best Dressed of #KYGA25 list.)

OK, let’s begin.

OK, seriously?

We can start with the way some Republicans decided to take a bill that already sought to prohibit bans on conversion therapy — a discredited attempt at counseling kids out of being anything other than straight — and then somehow add a section barring Medicaid funds from covering gender-affirming health care for transgender Kentuckians.

They did this literally at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in front of a Senate committee, which proceeded to pass the new bill (House Bill 495, sponsored by GOP Rep. David Hale).

Hale, to his credit, explained the committee substitute of the bill, which radically altered the bill with all of the new we’re-taking-away-your-health-care language, in the committee.

It was interesting to hear Hale present and defend this sudden change because just last week, he seemed to be defending a parent’s right to choose their child’s health care. Now, he’s defending the state’s right to choose your health care, regardless of age. Wonder what changed.

However, he was — and has been — praised for working to make the conversion therapy part of the bill stronger, per Dem Sen. Karen Berg. But the new section yanking away health care was a no-go.

The HB 495 committee vote also included committee chair GOP Sen. Stephen Meredith yelling at Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman mere *syllables* into Hartman’s testimony against the bill.

I’ve seen plenty of high tensions in Frankfort, but Meredith’s audacity might be unprecedented.

HB 495 now has two readings in the Senate, meaning it could get a full Senate vote as early as Thursday morning, actually, since both the House and Senate decided to gavel in at 9 a.m. instead of the normal 2 p.m.

If it passes the Senate, the House needs to agree with the changes the Senate made to their bill before it gets sent to Beshear’s desk where it will almost absolutely be vetoed.

But here’s the thing: Some Republicans in the House already tried to make the whole blocking Medicaid funds situation a thing several weeks ago and the bill went nowhere. Not even when HB 495 was up for a House vote last week did they try to add this language to it.

So, why now? And will the Senate be interested in it?

And if the Senate approves it, the House has to agree with the changes — will they? Will they do so by Friday night? If they don’t, will a conference committee — a group of lawmakers tasked with finding a compromise — be successful in time?

And if the conference committee fails, what will the free conference committee — the group that basically gets to take the bill and do whatever they want to it — come up with? And will they reach a solution in time?

Is it really worth it to them to spend that much time during the next two legislative days? We’ll see.

It is entirely possible that adding this language about Medicaid will cause the entire thing to collapse, therefore allowing Beshear’s ban on conversion therapy to stay in place. But again, we’ll see.

FRANKFORT, March 12 – Senate Democratic Floor Leader Gerald A. Neal, D-Louisville, speaks on House Bill 4, an act related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, on the Senate floor Wednesday. (Photo: LRC Public Information)

Does anyone know when slavery ended?

Kentucky’s GOP-dominated Senate easily approved — with an assist from Dem Sen. Robin Webb, who also voted in favor of the measure — this year’s marquee anti-diversity, equity and inclusion bill, House Bill 4.

HB 4 is aimed at college campuses, and despite this being a high-profile topic for the last two sessions and the bill actually not changing a ton since being filed last month, I’m still not sure if anyone is 100% sure what exactly it does and doesn’t do.

Generally, it is aimed at not forcing any policy designed to be based on religion, race, sex, color or national origin. It wants to do away with DEI offices. It wants to foster intellectual diversity, though, that is safe.

But, just like with so many other bills sparked by the GOP’s culture wars, even with attempts to make its language specific and after months of discussion, it still isn’t totally clear.

And when things like this aren’t clear, it often has a chilling effect on educators and admins.

Wednesday’s Senate vote was, um, interesting. Some Dems, like Louisville Dem Sen. Karen Berg, shared lengthy, personal stories about how DEI impacted them directly. Republican Sen. Donald Douglas, who is Black, rattled off a list of historical facts, including sharing that slavery ended in 1805. Dem Sen. Reggie Thomas, who is also Black, later corrected him regarding slavery facts.

And apparently there was an off-camera fight between legislative leaders, captured by the Kentucky Lantern’s McKenna Horsley.

I could write an entire other newsletter about the energy, the body language, Sen. Karen Berg’s shawl version of a Snuggie (?), the last second appearance of Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong — everything — in this clip, but I am tired and so therefore I will move on (for now).

This one is off to Beshear, who has 10 days to decide what he wants to do with it. (Spoiler: He will most likely veto it.)

More on LGBTQ+ issues

Senate Bill 2

SB 2, which would block gender-affirming health care for the 67 or so transgender inmates in Kentucky, passed a House committee Wednesday.

This is a top priority bill for the Senate GOP — all 31 Republican senators signed on as a cosponsor — but it looks like it might not have the time to pass the House. It needs three readings across three days, like all bills, and it needed its first reading on Wednesday in order to pass by Friday. And it got that first reading. So we’ll see how this goes.

But while Beshear is pretty pro-LGBTQ+, I don’t know if he’s gone on record regarding this particular issue. It might be possible that he won’t veto it, and therefore Republicans have a bit of extra time.

Senate Bill 132

This one would basically allow health care professionals to refuse to do certain medical procedures if those procedures violate their values. So, think, if their religious values include not believing LGBTQ+ people are real, they could refuse to provide needed gender-affirming health care. Same idea goes for abortions.

This passed out of a House committee and got that first reading Wednesday, so this also could pass Friday.

Senate Bill 60

SB 60 is very much like SB 132, but it extends the religious liberty thing to basically everything — not just health care.

It is almost safe to say this one is dead. It could’ve been heard in committee Wednesday, and yet they didn’t put it on the agenda. It also doesn’t have any of its three readings in the House, and there are only two legislative days left before the veto period, so … the math.

Oh, and also

For reasons I have not seen publicly and/or widely articulated, apparently Grimace was terrorizing the Kentucky Capitol Annex Wednesday.

As if the session itself wasn’t a terror enough.

Apparently, there is also an uprising regarding an alleged recent decision to stop the Capitol Annex snack shop (a small place with a gas station-like assortment of snacks and drinks so you don’t pass out in Frankfort and/or for those of us who have a fear of the Capitol Annex cafeteria) from offering *checks notes* hot food?

Obviously, I will keep y’all updated with such incredibly passing matters, especially as the veto period approaches.

Some programming notes

Just a bunch of repeats from last week:

• If you’re a paid sub, PLEASE double-check what card you have on file so any and all payments go through. Several of y’all signed up for annual subscriptions last March, so those should be renewing soon and I’d hate for you to lose access at the worst possible moment of session.
• It is fully party time in Frankfort, but party time in Frankfort does not come cheap. If you’d like to chip in a few bucks for gas or a Celsius via Venmo, I’d be forever grateful (but no pressure, seriously). My Venmo is right here.
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Where can you find me?

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Aight, my party people, we will talk when we talk next. If you see me in Frankfort and I’m not sobbing in my car, feel free to come up and say hi! I have friendship bracelets!

Toodles!