The Family Foundation Condemns Beshear’s Attempt to Create Taxpayer-Funded Transgender Operations for Prisoners

Foundation Calls on General Assembly to Rein In Governor’s Outrageous Overreach

LEXINGTON, KY – This week, the General Assembly’s Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee exposed the Beshear Administration’s attempt to force Kentucky taxpayers to fund gender “transition” operations for prisoners. The proposed regulation would adopt a Department of Corrections memo from 2021 that first established the policy of providing “transition” surgeries to prisoners.

At the subcommittee hearing, Senator Damon Thayer stated, “[the Beshear] Administration’s pursuit of this out-of-the-mainstream taxpayer-funded procedure is an insult and you ought to just stop.” Representative-elect TJ Roberts quickly entered the conversion on X by stating, “It’s time to end this madness. No tax dollars should fund this insanity.” Rep. Josh Calloway added, “Taxpayers should not be forced to fund this kind of lunacy.”

You can read the Department of Corrections memo here and the proposed regulation here.

Statement from David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation:

“The Beshear Administration’s attempt to use taxpayer dollars to pay for transgender surgeries for criminals behind bars is absurd and an insult to Kentucky taxpayers. The recent election results reaffirmed that Kentuckians reject these radical policies based in harmful gender ideology and do not want their tax dollars wasted in such a manner.

“We urge the General Assembly to take quick action to end this disgraceful use of taxpayer dollars, to further strengthen SB 150 from the 2023 legislative session, and to push back against the Beshear Administration’s overreach more broadly. A failure to strongly address the governor’s actions, from funding transgender surgeries for prisoners, to his illegal executive order banning so-called “conversion therapy,” to his attempts to undermine SB 150, will only encourage more outrageous executive overreach from his administration,” Walls concluded.

After this bombshell revelation, the Beshear Administration must disclose information about its practices since it created the Department of Corrections memo in 2021. How many prisoners have received taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries or cross-sex hormones? How much taxpayer money has the Beshear Administration spent on transgender interventions for prisoners so far? How many prisoners did the Department of Corrections send to women’s prisons after receiving transgender interventions? Have any taxpayer resources been spent on transgender interventions for minors in violation of SB 150?

Kentucky taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being used and why they are funding these harmful interventions for prisoners.