Kentucky bill taking away gender affirming care from inmates moves forward

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Kentucky lawmakers have greenlit a bill prohibiting taxpayer money being spent on gender-affirming care in Kentucky prisons. Opponents of the bill argued the move is entirely political and targets a small number of people.

“They want to have it. They get their doctor to prescribe it. It’s not medically necessary. And Medicaid says it’s not medically necessary,” Sen. Mike Wilson (R-Bowling Green) told committee members on Thursday.

“All inmates are entitled to health care, and that includes transgender inmates,” Chris Hartman, executive director of The Fairness Campaign testified.

Just on its numbering alone, Senate Bill 2 is considered a high-priority piece of legislation. The short one-and-a-half-page proposal would expressly stop any public money being spent on prescribing hormones or conducting gender-reassignment surgeries for state inmates. The bill would allow a period for inmates to slowly reduce the intake of any medication.

“The Commonwealth of Kentucky has not provided funding for any gender reassignment surgeries to any prisoners in our Department of Corrections. Now, what we have tried to do is what we have to do under federal law,” Gov. Andy Beshear said at a Team Kentucky briefing on Thursday.

The bill comes as a response to a policy change by the Department of Corrections in 2021 that state lawmakers say they weren’t aware of. And while no reassignment surgeries have reportedly taken place, the DOC told lawmakers that 67 inmates in state custody are prescribed cross-sex hormones. Beshear said the state is following federal law that could otherwise violate an inmate’s 8th Amendment rights. The bill’s sponsor is skeptical; no surgeries have happened.

“I would say this, that it’s in their policy that they will provide that, so we cannot really trust they’re not going to do that,” Wilson said.

“Despite what the sponsor says. Every single medical organization in the world confirms that hormone therapy for transgender people is medically necessary. It is not cosmetic; it is not elective; it is literally lifesaving.” Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilmember Emma Curtis said, one of a handful of advocates who came to testify against the bill.

The bill moved out of committee on party lines with one GOP pass vote.