SB2 is a bill the General Assembly passed to prevent taxpayers from being on the hook for so-called gender transitions of prisoners.
Jesse Green of The Family Foundation says it was needed because Governor Andy Beshear's (shown in suit and tie above) administration was "attempting to put through the regulatory process a regulation that would put into effect requirements for prison officials to provide things like gender transitions and preferred pronouns and a bunch of the LGBT nonsense."
Green adds the Beshear administration had been doing this since 2021 without telling the public.
"So, SB2 was a response to all that, and it shut down any further attempts by Governor Beshear or anyone in his administration to use taxpayer dollars to fund these gender transitions for prisoners," says Green.
Kentucky lawmakers supported the legislation overwhelmingly in the 2025 legislative session. SB2 passed the House 73-12 and the Senate 31-6.
It became law, effective June 27, when Beshear took no action on the bill.
The lead plaintiff in the ACLU case is Matthew Paul Smith, a convicted murderer. Green says the liberal legal group is attempting to invent a constitutional right to taxpayer-funded gender transitions.
"Neither the Kentucky constitution nor the United States Constitution has any sort of provision in there, and the assertion that they're making is ridiculous and they're asking for judicial activism," says Green.
Attorney General Russell Coleman (R-Kentucky) will represent Kentucky in ACLU's challenge of SB2.
The 2025 Kentucky General Assembly session was the sixth regular session of the legislature during the Beshear’s tenure. Republicans maintained their majorities in both chambers following the 2024 elections for the senate and the house.
“Tax dollars must not be wasted on attempting to do the impossible. We are thankful to the General Assembly for responding to these concerns by passing SB 2 and to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office for defending this commonsense law. We encourage the General Assembly to take further action next session to ensure no tax dollars are spent on gender ‘transitions’ or other forms of radical gender ideology,” The Family Foundation’s executive director, David Walls, wrote in a statement.
