The Frankfort LINK: Legislature passes "South Dakota" style ban on gender affirming care

The Kentucky legislature passed a bill last week that will place a sweeping ban on gender-affirming care for kids in Kentucky after the legislature snuck in language to another bill and then quickly passed it in an unannounced meeting before moving it through both chambers. 

The legislation — which has switched to multiple bill numbers and took a dizzying number of different forms in its final 24 hours — ended up jammed into Senate Bill 150, a bill that originally gave teachers the option to call a student by their chosen pronoun. 

The move to pass Senate Bill 150 started in the House when a surprise House Education meeting was called during lunch. The meeting contained HB150 as the sole agend item, but  with newly added language similar to a law in South Dakota that bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery, and cross-sex hormones. 

The bill was then rushed to the House floor, where a vote quickly took place, but not before Democrats spent nearly two hours trying to stall the bill. 

House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) used a procedural tactic to get the bill off the floor by citing the constitution that a bill can’t contain more than one piece of subject matter. 

House Speaker David Osborne struck down similar amendments to fellow Republicans on similar grounds the night before regarding additional amendments to a book bill. 

After meeting with the House Counsel and Floor leadership, Osborne said he wouldn’t carry the motion to split the bill. 

Roberts also spoke out about the bill on the floor.

In the Senate, the bill passed quickly despite some Senators speaking out against the bill. 

A NKY senator was at the center of the strategy to push through an amendment that mirrored what is being called “The South Dakota Law” — a law passed in South Dakota and signed into law by Gov. Kristi Noem in February that bans puberty blockers, gender-affirming surgery, and cross-sex hormones.  

The “South Dakota” law idea was introduced Wednesday night in the Senate by Northern Kentucky Sen. Gex Williams (R-Verona) when he filed two amendments to House Bill 470 — the original legislation seeking to ban the use of hormones and surgery to be used for transgender services. 

On the Senate floor after voting yes on the passage of SB150, Williams said the bill was about love and concern from rising suicide rates over what he deemed to be issues with transgender people taking drugs to change their biological sex.

The bill passed both chambers and now sits on the governor’s desk. If he vetoes, the legislature can override his veto when they return from the veto period on March 29.