Kentucky Republicans attached a requirement that state prisons incarcerate people based on their “original biological sex” into a floor amendment on an unrelated bill on Thursday. Democratic lawmakers argued vehemently against the change, saying it would put incarcerated transgender people in extreme danger of rape and assault.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Tichenor from Smithfield told lawmakers on the Senate floor that the amendment to House Bill 392 would protect women. It’s already passed the House in its original form, but due to the addition will require the House to vote once again for final passage.
“I just want to speak in favor of all the women who are subjected to men who have been in their private spaces,” Tichenor said.
Sen. Reginald Thomas, a Democrat from Lexington, argued the newly introduced floor amendment would subject transgender people in Kentucky prisons and jails to danger.
“This amendment is cruel, unnecessary, and violates federal law that protects individuals who are incarcerated,” Thomas said. “Transgender women inmates will be especially vulnerable, vulnerable to violence under this extreme policy.”
In a January executive order, President Donald Trump ordered federal prisons to house inmates who are transgender women in men’s facilities; however, it does not appear to apply to transgender men, which the change to HB 392 appears to do.
On the face of the amendment, a person who has completely transitioned — including via gender reassignment surgery — would still be required under state law to be housed with the sex they were assigned at birth.
A review of 11 studies on incarcerated transgender people in 2018 found that they almost universally experience more difficulties than for other prisoners, with “stigma, discrimination, violence and sexual exploitation” often reported.
“Their ‘otherness’ is used as a weapon against them by fellow prisoners through intimidation and violence (including sexual) and by prison officers through neglect and ignorance,” the study found.
GOP Senate President Robert Stivers from Manchester said some transgender individuals are already being housed in prisons that don’t align with the sex assigned at birth. He compared the legislation to previous successful legislative efforts to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports. He said it’s not an attempt to pick on a specific community or be “mean-spirited.”
“Certain communities don't want to be in a room, a bathroom, a shower (with the other sex) and it makes them uncomfortable themselves,” Stivers said.
Serenity Johnson, a transgender activist, said it feels like the LGBTQ+ community is “getting hit from every angle” this session. She said she is disappointed to learn that she and other members of the public would not have the opportunity to testify or express their concerns to lawmakers on the change, as she has on other bills this year. The new provision, either as it now exists in HB 392 or in other legislation, has not come before a committee this year.
“It just seems like we can't get a break almost,” Johnson said. “If they can't get it through one bill, they'll just shove it into another and just kind of let it pass under the table. And so that's always disappointing.”
A similar provision, to require transgender prisoners be housed based on their sex-assigned-at-birth, did appear in House Bill 5. It has not received a committee hearing this year.
The state’s Republican supermajority has to either pass the bill Friday or lose the power to override the potential veto of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
Democratic Sen. Karen Berg of Louisville, quoting from recent polling, said few Kentuckians want their lawmakers to prioritize anti-transgender legislation; yet, she said it remains an oversized focus in the General Assembly.
“You do not have to vote this way because your constituents don't care about these issues,” said Berg, who lost her transgender transgender son in 2022 to suicide. “This amendment will literally lead to people being repeatedly raped and possibly murdered for no reason (other than) that there are elected people here that have worms in their heart, that are eating such big holes that they don't know what it means to respect another human being's dignity.”
The Mason-Dixon polling, shared by the LGBTQ+ advocate Fairness Campaign, found 57% of Kentucky voters believe “denying hormone treatment for transgender inmates” should be a low or very low priority and 65% said they think “banning state Medicaid coverage for transgender health care” should be a low or very low priority.
By contrast, more than 90% of the polled Kentucky voters said access to affordable health care and disaster relief are very high priorities for them, according to the poll conducted of 625 registered voters in February.
When asked why transgender health care services in prisons and in Medicaid had become a focus of the session, GOP House Speaker David Osborne from Prospect said “it was an important issue to some people.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
