Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a bill that would have protected conversion therapy practices and denied Medicaid funds to pay for so-called gender-affirming healthcare for transgender Kentucky adults.
Beshear vetoed House Bill 495 Saturday night at the Kentucky Fairness Campaign Dinner in Louisville.
The veto is unlikely to last long. The Republican-heavy legislature returns to Frankfort on Thursday, where lawmakers will have two days to override the governor’s vetoes.
The measure was passed by a large margin less than an hour before the midnight deadline for the GOP-supermajority legislature to pass bills and retain its ability to override gubernatorial vetoes. The bill passed after the Senate version that prohibited the use of Medicaid was accepted by the House.
GOP lawmakers voted to remove restrictions that Beshear placed on the practice last year. He banned spending tax dollars from paying for the practice on minors, saying his executive order was needed to protect children. The order directed licensing boards to consider adopting strong policies disciplining someone found to have practiced conversion therapy on minors.
“Conversion therapy is torture, and that’s why I signed an executive order banning it in Kentucky,” Beshear said on social media. “Legislators seek to overturn those protections with HB 495, which I vetoed at the Fairness Dinner. I’m going to keep fighting for what’s right — and that’s loving thy neighbor.”
Rep. David Hale, R-Wellington, introduced HB 495 and it was amended during a committee meeting earlier this month to ban Kentucky Medicaid program funds from paying for hormones or surgery for transgender adults.
Hale said families should have access to the mental health care of their choice, and said his bill would protect mental health care professionals, institutions and ordained ministries from discrimination when providing counseling services.
David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, a socially conservative group, called it a needed pushback against Beshear’s executive action, which Walls said was an attack on free speech and religious freedom.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
