Contrasting stories out of Lexington and Covington
(Monday during the day) Advocates rally for transgender-supportive student bathrooms at Fayette schools – At a Central Office rally Monday, members of the LGBTQ community asked the Fayette County Board of Education to support transgender students, specifically as it pertains to school bathrooms. Trans kids are especially vulnerable to discrimination and bullying in schools and what bathrooms they use are an issue in a new controversial state law, rally organizer Mason Chernosky said as at least 20 people rallied outside Central Office. Chernosky said after talking to school board chairman Tyler Murphy on Monday before the school board meeting, “I have full faith that the Fayette County Board of Education is going to do the right thing and support trans kids.” (Herald-Leader)
(Monday night) Kentucky’s second-largest school district bows to anti-LGBTQ+ law – Members of the Fayette County Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to bring district policy in line with new state restrictions that limit classroom speech about gender and sexuality and bathroom access for transgender students. The decision means Kentucky’s second-largest school district now bars transgender students from bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender. The board also banned sex education in grades 5 and below, another requirement under the new state law. (LPM News)
Covington Board of Education votes to remove, investigate legal policies relating to human sexuality, gender – The Covington Board of Education unanimously voted to remove two sections of the state’s new legal policies, both of which related to human sexuality and gender, at a meeting Thursday evening.
At the request of the Board of Education President Tom Haggard, Superintendent Alvin Garrison and the board’s attorneys will investigate the policies to see how they would “actually be implemented,” Haggard said. He added that the board would work to draft up “some sort of resolution of our disapproval at having to adopt such harmful policies.”
The remainder of the new legal policies were adopted, including a policy allowing district parents to challenge the presence of books in schools they deem inappropriate and another policy expanding the availability of automatic external defibrillators at school facilities. (LINK nky)
Other stories
Former gubernatorial candidate plans ‘Freedom Fest,’ featuring Donald Trump & Daniel Cameron – A fireworks show, the former president, and the Kentucky Republican candidate for governor are on tap for a conservative bash in Northern Kentucky. Former Republican gubernatorial hopeful Eric Deters is hosting and organizing an event in Kentucky this September that he says will include Donald Trump, and GOP gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron. On Tuesday, Deters announced the 3rd “Freedom Fest” at his Kenton County farm set to take place on Sept. 9, 2023. (KY Fried Politics)
‘Trying to avoid tragedies’: Kentucky GOP lawmaker discussing bill to temporarily seize guns from those deemed a danger – State Senator Whitney Westerfield says he's working on a bill to prevent gun-related deaths, while also retaining second amendment rights. It's called CARR, standing for 'Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention.' The legislation was first introduced in the state in 2022. That similar proposal got bipartisan support in the Kentucky General Assembly then, but it has yet to pass. It's a bill that would allow law enforcement to temporarily seize a person's gun, if a judge deems them in crisis and a risk to themselves or others. (WHAS - News)
New grassroots campaign emerges to oppose Letcher County prison construction – Letcher County has become the battlefield for a contentious debate over the proposed construction of a federal prison, a project that carries an estimated price tag of $505 million. Now, a new grassroots campaign, the No New Letcher Prison Campaign, has sprung up to challenge the project and the funds earmarked for it. The campaign is a non-partisan national effort that seeks to halt the construction of this new federal prison by amending the Appropriations Bill in Congress, which currently has half a billion dollars allocated for the project. (The Lexington Times)
Cameron, Beshear campaigns’ tit-for-tattling to FBI both part of same rotten system | Opinion – In the tit-for-tattling that is the Kentucky Governor’s race, the Beshear and Cameron campaigns have already turned each other into the FBI, and it’s not even July. So if you want the short version on how it’s going, the answer is obviously: not great. What we have here is the excruciating kind of humongous-dollar, incessant social media campaign in an off-year, which leaves every slimy, under a rock PAC and dark money group the time and cash to blanket the Kentucky race. And for what? So they can blanket every airwave and surface with ads that viewers will soon tune out. Did I mention it’s not even July? (Linda Blackford at the Herald-Leader)
And from the Twitterverse ...
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