Several people protesting a controversial bill banning gender-affirming care for trans youth were arrested at the Kentucky Capitol Wednesday.
The arrests came as the House took up the matter of overriding Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 150.
The Kentucky State Police did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment.
The House continued its business voting on and discussing the bill over loud chants from the protesters, who were seated in the gallery overlooking the chamber.
In addition to banning puberty-blockers, hormones and surgeries for kids under 18, Senate Bill 150 would also ban lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation, prevents trans students from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity and stops school districts from requiring teachers use a student’s pronouns if they don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.
The bill has been called the most “extreme” and “worst” anti-LGBTQ piece of legislation in the country by pro-LGBTQ rights groups including, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the ACLU of Kentucky and the Trevor Project. Many of those same organizations were quick to praise Beshear’s veto.
Hundreds of Kentucky students converged on the steps of the state Capitol Annex to protest the override. Many protesters moved inside once the legislature gaveled in, chanting and jeering loudly from the Capitol’s halls.
Their chants included references to the death by suicide of Sen. Karen Berg’s, D-Louisville, transgender son Henry, as well as the shooting death of Louisville transgender woman Zachee Imanitwitaho this year.
“Henry, Zachee — they should be with us today,” the group yelled.
They also asserted that “trans rights are human rights.”
At first, Capitol security and Kentucky State Police struggled to remove the protesters from the gallery. After about half an hour, they resorted to using zip ties to apprehend the protesters and lead them out of the Capitol.
House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said that House leadership did not make the call to remove the protesters, but that their behavior did not meet “proper levels of decorum.”
“We welcome everybody to be here, to participate in their government, and want everybody to be here to participate in their government. (But) we do expect that proper levels of decorum will be maintained to allow us to conduct our business. We felt it was important to proceed on with the business thing that we did,” Osborne said.
