Anti-trans rhetoric returns to Fancy Farm as Republicans go after ‘woke’ policies

Characterizations of Gov. Andy Beshear as “woke,” coupled with a slew of anti-transgender jabs, were a theme in speeches by a handful of Republicans on Saturday at the state’s oldest political event.

“If you’ve ever called someone a science denier but then can’t define what a woman is, you might be a Beshear-Biden Democrat,” GOP State Auditor Mike Harmon said at the 143rd annual Fancy Farm picnic.

“If you want to sell a combined pack of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head parts and call the toy gender neutral potato head, you might be a Beshear-Biden Democrat,” Harmon repeated to a chanting crowd.

Anti-trans rhetoric played a prominent role in last year’s Fancy Farm, too. Kelley Paul, wife of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, said at one point, “I wouldn’t expect the Democrats to know what a recession is. They can’t even define what a woman is.”

The majority of references at this year’s political event were largely about Senate Bill 150, passed earlier this year by the Kentucky General Assembly, and Beshear’s veto of it.

Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics Newsletter

A must-read newsletter for political junkies across the Bluegrass State with reporting and analysis from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Never miss a story! Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics newsletter to connect with our reporting team and get behind-the-scenes insights, plus previews of the biggest stories.

The new law restricts K-12 curriculum on gender and sexuality, prohibits trans students from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, bars schools from requiring teachers use a trans students’ pronouns, and bans all gender-affirming health care for youth with gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria refers to the “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity,” according to the American Psychiatric Association. Multiple Kentucky health care providers testified before legislative committees this session, warning about the harms a ban on gender-affirming care — endorsed as the standard of care by major U.S. medical associations — would cause trans youth.

The gender-affirming care ban applies to health care provider-prescribed hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery. Beshear vetoed the omnibus bill, saying at it “tears away the freedom of parents to make important and difficult medical decisions for their kids. It tears away the freedom of parents to do what those parents believe is best for their kids and instead has big government making those decisions for everyone.”

Multiple Republican hopefuls are trying to use Beshear’s veto of the controversial bill to their advantage, no one more than GOP Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who has repeatedly vowed to “restore Kentucky’s values.”

Cameron accused Beshear of “demanding that boys play in girls’ sports. He protects transgender surgery for kids. The governor has the audacity to lecture rural Kentuckians on right and wrong when he and Joe Biden can’t even tell the difference between a man and a woman.”

Near the front row of the crowd on Saturday, a Cameron supporter waved a large doctored picture of Beshear, Lia Thomas and Riley Gaines. In a 2022 NCAA championship, Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, tied Lia Thomas, a trans woman, for fifth place. In the year since, Gaines has become a national firebrand her vocal opposition of trans women athletes competing in women’s sports, appearing alongside political leaders like U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Last year, Beshear vetoed another GOP bill (it was overridden by the Republican supermajority) that bans trans girls from playing in girls’ or womens’ sports from sixth grade through their senior year in college. It, too, was criticized by Republicans on Saturday.

Before Fancy Farm, at the Graves County Republican Party breakfast, Cameron referred to trans girls as “biological males,” saying, “rather than stand for your values, (Beshear) has vetoed legislation that would stop biological males from playing in women’s sports (and) from protecting our kids from transgender surgeries” which he said would cost children “their innocence.”

Cameron’s running mate, state Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, also chided the governor for his veto of these bills, and referred to trans girls as “boys.”

“We fought to keep boys out of girls sports, and guess what, Andy Beshear vetoed it,” Mills said, repeating a point made by House Speaker David Osborne earlier that morning at. “We fought Beshear to protect Kentucky children from life-altering drugs and sex change surgeries, and Andy Beshear vetoed it.” This message was repackaged as an attack ad on Beshear from the Cameron campaign. It was initially deemed “hate speech” and deleted by YouTube, but it was reposted.

Beshear said he does not support gender reassignment surgery for minors, though GOP politicians point to his veto of Senate Bill 150 – an omnibus bill that included a ban on the surgeries – as proof that he does.

On Friday night, at the Marshall County GOP’s Night Before Fancy Farm dinner event, Mark Metcalf, GOP nominee for state treasurer, asked, “Do you want a governor who vetoes protecting young people from sex reassignment surgery, or do you want a man who’s fought against it from the time he became AG?”

At the Fancy Farm pavilion Saturday, Cameron shouted into a microphone over a raucous crowd, “Governor, I know you’re obsessed with pronouns. Come November, yours are going to be ‘has’ and ‘been.’”

One of the only Democrats to respond to Republicans’ comments was Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, who spoke after Cameron. She said real leadership isn’t about “fanning the flames of all the cable news culture wars. It’s about putting politics aside and showing up for people.”