Beshear Temporarily Blocks Pro-Conversion Therapy Bill
On Monday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed a bill that would repeal his 2024 ban on conversion therapy. Unfortunately, his veto is likely to be overturned by a Republican supermajority.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
On February 13, Kentucky House Bill 495 was introduced to the Kentucky House of Representatives. Titled “An act relating to healthcare services and declaring an emergency,” and, according to its original summary, meant to “prohibit discrimination against mental health care professionals, mental health care institutions, and ordained ministry for providing protected counseling services,” HB 495 is in actuality a proposal to enshrine the practice of conversion therapy on minor in Kentucky state law.
The bill passed 67-19 on March 14, but on Monday Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed the bill. Beshear announced that he had vetoed the bill at the 2025 Fairness Dinner, an event hosted by Kentucky LGTBQ+ advocacy organization The Fairness Campaign, then uploaded a video to Twitter explaining his decision: “Conversion therapy is torture on our kids, and no one should ever want to subject a kid to something like that.”
HB 495 is a direct response to an executive order Beshear issued last September banning conversion therapy on minors in the state of Kentucky.
“Kentucky cannot possibly reach its full potential unless it is free from discrimination by or against any citizen—unless all our people feel welcome in our spaces, free from unjust barriers and supported to be themselves,” wrote Beshear in the 2024 EO. “Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it can cause significant long-term harm to our kids, including increased rates of suicide and depression. This is about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them.”
He was unequivocally right. There’s no mystery here; we’re well aware of the explicit danger of conversion therapy and the harm that it can do. What’s more, the vast majority of Americans believe that conversion therapy should be made illegal, and 20 states, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have enacted laws against it. Most of those states are blue, making Kentucky one of very few Republican territories to outlaw the despicable practice, thanks to Beshear.
This isn’t the first time Beshear has spoken out on behalf of the transgender community. During his 2023 bid for reelection, Beshear was frequently targeted by Republicans for his support of trans people, and won reelection by a narrow 6% margin.
It isn’t even the first time he’s vetoed an anti-trans bill. In 2022, he vetoed SB 83, which forced trans kids to play on teams based on their gender assigned at birth if they participated in school sports. That veto was overridden. In 2023, he vetoed sweeping anti-trans bill SB 150 that, among many other things, banned gender-affirming care for minors. That veto was also overridden.
Unfortunately, it’s a near certainty that Kentucky Republicans will once again override Beshear’s veto. They only need a simple majority to do so, and the Kentucky GOP currently holds a supermajority in state legislation.
That said, like SB 150, the constitutionality of which hinges on United States v. Skrmetti, HB 495 will ultimately live or die based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case about Colorado’s conversion therapy ban that will be heard next year. It’s unclear exactly how the Supreme Court might rule on either gender-affirming care for minors or conversion therapy bans, but it’s undeniable that trans youth will suffer while the wheels of justice turn very, very slowly.
Our hearts break for them.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
