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As Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session winds down, Queer Kentucky will be keeping y’all updated throughout all of it.
Lawmakers will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to pass any final legislation before the veto period begins Thursday — a two-week-ish period where Gov. Andy Beshear will be able to sort through all of the bills on his desk and decide what to do with them.
Basically all of this year’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is dead, which means it can’t pass this session, but Frankfort can be sneaky, so we’ll still be watching. (Plus, they have a ton of important stuff to get through over the next two days, including the next two-year state budget.)
This story will be regularly updated over the next few days with any important happenings or interesting tidbits, so bookmark it, check back frequently and share it with your friends so they can do the same.
Keep an eye on Queer Kentucky’s social media pages for any major news, and feel free to contact lead politics writer Olivia Krauth at [email protected] with any questions or thoughts you have about bills or the legislative session. You can also give us your thoughts in our 2026 politics survey.
New posts will appear below this line, with the newest stuff being first. Be sure to scroll down to see any older content you may have missed.
10:35 p.m. Wednesday — Winding down
We’re starting to wind down for the evening, and it looks like the Senate is officially NOT going to take up HB 759.
Anything can still happen, technically, but the Senate is currently taking a break and waiting on a few final things to come over to them from the House side. Typically, when they hit this phase of the session, the Senate is very uninterested in resurrecting legislation they could’ve passed by now.
The House is also taking a break. Everyone is actively taking breaks.
8:15 p.m. Wednesday — Dinner is (almost) done
The House is back and powering through legislation, but the Senate is still finishing up its dinner recess.
That big $800 million one-time spending package I mentioned? Turns out it is now $1.7 billion in spending across 300 projects. I’m still wading through what those projects are.
6:15 p.m. Wednesday — Slowing down, but not done
Things are starting to slow down a bit for dinner, but we’re still expecting a late night.
I’ve lost track of how many bills are in conference committee mode right now. A lot of contentious stuff (at least between lawmakers) is actively being decided behind closed doors.
5:10 p.m. Wednesday — Crunch time
We’ve got about seven hours until lawmakers need to shut things down for the veto period, and I can’t tell if things are starting to slow down or they’re about to speed up. Several big-deal bills are still up in the air.
After passing the budget bills, the Senate took a break for caucus meetings. They still haven’t done anything with HB 759, and they don’t look particularly poised to do so.
When they get back, they’ll need to deal with (or not, I guess) several major issues. The House just rejected their changes to this year’s big Medicaid bill, so they’ll need to either recede from those changes or push the debate on Medicaid into conference committee mode.
They’re also running out of time to handle housing reform, one of their priorities of session. The House threw several housing reform bills into one and passed it earlier today, and now the Senate needs to accept those changes or push this into conference committee mode, too.
Other things that are still a major question mark include what is included in House Bill 900 — the state’s $800 million one-time spending bill — and what they’ll do with the JCPS board.
Meanwhile, the House is debating the budget bills now.
4:10 p.m. Wednesday — Is that a budget I see?!
At long last, lawmakers Senate are sharing details about the next state budget. Technically, budgets, because they have separate bills to deal with different branches, but still.
The budget has been in the conference committee process for the last several days. This is when the House and Senate don’t like each other’s versions of a bill, so a group of them sit around and try to find a compromise. This process is pretty behind-the-scenes, so we’re actively learning what the final budgets look like and it may still be a bit before written copies of the final bills are online for public viewing.
The main budget is House Bill 500. Senate A&R Chair Sen. Chris McDaniel said several state agencies will see a reduction in funding over the next two years, but did not say specifically which ones.
Something important to note: Unlike with most bills, Beshear can veto just parts of budget bills. So, if he generally likes the budget, but doesn’t think a certain thing should get funding, then he can line-item veto it. The legislature, though, can still override him (and they almost always do).
1:50 p.m. Wednesday — Just chillin’ (day two)
Once again, greetings from Frankfort!
Yesterday was pretty stop-start-stop-start, with long periods of lawmakers breaking for caucus meetings mixed with lengthy sections of back-to-back bill votes. We’ve seen much of the same so far today.
The House passed a few interesting bills, including a revised bill to overhaul Kentucky State University — the state’s only public HBCU — and one that would let local school boards hire education service providers — groups that typically run charter schools, to varying levels of success — to oversee public schools.
The Senate has yet to act on HB 759.
10:15 a.m. Wednesday — Off to the races
Good morning, y’all! Welcome to the final day of Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session before the veto period! AKA one of the absolute busiest days in the entire legislative session. (And perfectly timed on April Fool’s Day.)
Reminder: They have until 11:59 p.m. tonight to pass anything they may need to override a Beshear veto of. They can still pass legislation during the final two days of session on April 14 and 15, but they wouldn’t be able to override Beshear if he says no.
The Senate just got started for the day, and the main thing we’re watching there is and has been HB 759 and its anti-trans teacher amendment. Last night, I talked with a source who said the bill and its amendment are dead, but I’ll still keep an eye on it just in case.
The Senate also needs to vote on House Bill 2, a sweeping Medicaid proposal. You can read about that bill here.
The House is slated to start at 11 a.m. I’m expecting some kind of JCPS-focused legislation to come out of that chamber today, including a bill that could shift power from the JCPS school board to its superintendent, change how many board members there are and where they represent, and create a financial advisory committee for the large district.
Oh, right, and we still haven’t seen a final written copy of the next two-year state budget, nor do we have any idea how the state wants to spend around $800 million in one-time spending.
6:25 p.m. Tuesday — Calling it an early night?
These last two days of session before the veto period typically include long days and even longer nights, but it looks like that might not be the case this time around.
The Senate adjourned for the day around 40 minutes ago, without touching HB 759 or its amendment again. (The House, meanwhile, is going on about hour four of being recessed.)
They’ll be back at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Remember: They have until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night to pass anything remotely controversial to have a chance to override a likely Beshear veto during the final two days of session on April 14 and 15.
So, what could that mean for HB 759? They can’t touch it tonight, but if they want to pass the bill tomorrow, they’ll need to move it to the orders of the day, and then vote on it. That’s when the anti-trans teacher amendment would be withdrawn.
5 p.m. Tuesday — Bills, bills, bills
The House has been in recess for a bit now, and the Senate looks poised to join them shortly.
We’ve spent the last few hours powering through a ton of votes, including final passage for bills, agreeing with changes the other chamber made, and even a Senate override of a new Beshear veto on a bill protecting pesticide companies.
Bills on everything from child care access, to election tweaks, to the rights’ of protesters around ICE agents, have gotten votes this afternoon.
One thing that hasn’t: HB 759. Like I reported earlier, the bill was pulled from the consent calendar in the Senate shortly after noon. It hasn’t been assigned to the orders of the day, though, aka the spot it needs to be in order to get a full Senate vote. So, stay tuned on that.
3:20 p.m. Tuesday — Supreme Court “conversion therapy” ruling
Kentucky lawmakers undid a ban on “conversion therapy” for minors last legislative session, but they still had some reactions to Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling to overturn similar bans in other states.
“Today, the Supreme Court of the United States has once again betrayed the LGBTQ+ Community, especially our vulnerable youth,” Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, said in a statement.
“As a licensed psychologist and the longtime sponsor of legislation to prohibit this discredited and deadly practice, I could not disagree more with this decision.
“All young people in Kentucky deserve to be safe and to be their authentic selves. As a mother and grandmother, I’m heartbroken.
“State governments have a responsibility to protect children, not put them in harm’s way. Today’s SCOTUS decision prevents states from protecting against harmful practices that abuse children and can leave lasting scars,” she said.
2:30 p.m. Tuesday — We’re just chillin’
Greetings from Frankfort!
We haven’t done a ton yet, mainly because the Senate has spent the last roughly two hours in caucus meetings — closed-door meetings with everyone in the party to get everyone in line, more or less.
Before they did that, though, the Senate pulled HB 759 from the consent calendar. This is a procedural step to allow the anti-trans teacher floor amendment to be withdrawn.
Meanwhile, the House has gotten through a lot, including giving a few bills around teacher misconduct final clearance. Those should head to Gov. Andy Beshear shortly.
11 a.m. Tuesday — What’s up with HB 759 and trans teachers?!
Lawmakers are set to gavel in at noon to formally kick off the day, but they’ve already had a pretty busy morning full of committee meetings to give some bills a quick vote.
One big thing I’ll be watching Tuesday: House Bill 759.
I wrote a whole post yesterday explaining exactly what is going on and fact-checking some other outlets who got it super wrong, but basically HB 759 has a last-second amendment to keep trans people from teaching. It is not expected to go anywhere, and the amendment’s sponsor is supposed to withdraw it before the bill itself gets a vote.
We don’t know exactly when that could happen, though, but I’ll be watching and I’ll update the live blog when it does.
Other resources to stay informed:
- Follow Queer Kentucky for up-to-date legislative updates.
- Check out our civic explainers like:
- Sign up for legislative alerts for groups like the Fairness Campaign and ACLU of Kentucky.
- Follow your favorite advocacy groups and journalists on social media for any live updates out of Frankfort.
- Turn on KET or the LRC’s livestreams of committee meetings and House and Senate proceedings to watch as things go down and listen for any changes to bills.
