By Bruce Schreiner | Associated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use.
The votes to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto were lopsided in both legislative chambers — where the GOP wields supermajorities — and came on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session.
The debate is likely to spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign in Kentucky and could reach the courts if opponents follow through on a threat to mount a legal challenge against the bill.
Activists on both sides of the impassioned debate gathered at the statehouse to make competing appeals shortly before lawmakers took up the transgender bill.
A few hours before the vote, as transgender-rights advocates rallied outside Kentucky’s Capitol, trans teenager Sun Pacyga held up a sign summing up a grim review of Republican legislation aimed at banning access to gender-affirming health care. The sign read: “Our blood is on your hands.”
“If it passes, the restricted access to gender-affirming health care, I think trans kids will die because of that,” the 17-year-old student said, expressing a persistent concern among the bill’s critics that the restrictions could lead to an increase in teen suicides.
The Senate voted 29-8 to override Beshear’s veto, as chants from bill opponents echoed throughout the Capitol. A short time later, the House completed the override on a vote of 76-23 but not before chanting opponents of the bill were escorted out of the chamber.
Bill supporters assembled to defend the measure, saying it protects trans children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare, however.
“We cannot allow people to continue down the…
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