In a packed rally in the well of the Capitol, Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman welcomed an energetic crowd.
"You're in the people's house, folks!" he said, revving up the crowd.
Along with Gov. Beshear, who told the audience he's not backing down on his support for the LGBTQ community.
"At a time when many people in this rotunda and across this country feel attacked by their own federal government. I'm here to say, I stood with you before, I stand with you now, and I'll stand with you in the future," the governor said.
With just days to go before the deadline to pass the most contentious bills with a chance to override the governor's vetoes, Hartman said — despite the enthusiastic gathering — he's not optimistic about stopping the measures that remain on the table. They include bills barring cross-gender hormone treatments for inmates and religious liberty bills he fears could serve as vehicles to challenge already existing fairness ordinances.
"We're just doing the best we can to triage the damage," he told WUKY. "We're glad that a lot of the other anti-LGBTQ bills are not moving. There's some really explicit and egregious measures that have been proposed, more than a dozen anti-LGBTQ bills total. But the fact that four of them are still in play at this point in the legislative session is very bad news."
One bill that would have shielded so-called conversion therapy from legal challenges has been whittled down to one that simply reverses the governor's ban on the practice.