The Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) is garnering national attention for exposing the ridiculous spending of the Federal government. But Kentucky has absurdities in its budget as well and the lack of transparency in the current bureaucracy exacerbates legislators’ concerns.
This is precisely why State Senate Republicans passed Senate Bill 2 on February 19, which prohibits Kentucky tax dollars from funding gender transitions for Kentucky inmates. Conservatives insist that the money of Kentuckians should not be used to practice harmful and fund questionable medical interventions on prisoners. Opposition, however, says that the Bill targets “our smallest and most vulnerable communities.”
In the Kentucky House, State Representative Josh Calloway (R – Irvington) sponsored House Bill 154, which would prohibit State tax dollars from funding gender transition surgeries. When the Bill was filed, Rep. Calloway says he reached out to the Cabinet of Health and Family Services and was told that tax-payer funded gender transitions “ basically weren’t going on.” Calloway says the Cabinet later walked back that statement in a Regulatory Committee meeting, admitting that some procedures were going on in Kentucky detention centers.
However, Calloway told CPC that on February 13, 2025, he received communication from the Cabinet that HB 154 would affect “10,000-15,000 individuals” in the State of Kentucky who would otherwise receive gender transitions from Kentucky tax dollars. This is a far cry from their initial claim that such taxpayer-funded gender transitions were not happening. Such deceit from a state agency is inexcusable.
Kentuckians have a right to know how their money is being spent. As Sen. Mike Wilson stated in a press release, the concern is a matter of “transparency or public input.” According to Wilson, the sponsor of SB 2, the goal is to ensure Kentuckians are not funding non-essential treatments and to likewise maintain the obligation to provide appropriate medical care to all inmates.
Kentucky Republicans are not opposed to medical care for Kentucky inmates. Rather, their concern is the funding of elective and cosmetic procedures that do more harm than good. As Richard P Fitzgibbons (MD) records, a study of transgender youth found that the people who undergo gender-affirming care, “had a twofold to threefold increased risk of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorder, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-harm without lethal intent, and both inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment.”
Gender transition surgeries leave their patients unfulfilled, precisely because what they claim to achieve is a biological impossibility. Gender-confused individuals deserve compassion and true medical care, not subsidies that affirm them in their confusion and make harmful and irreversible changes to their bodies. The use of Kentucky tax dollars to do so is absolutely absurd.
Good medicine does not mutilate and harm the human person and good fiscal policy does not secretly prop up bad medicine using tax-payer monies.
Such decisions by state agencies under Governor Andy Beshear’s administration do not reflect the majority of Kentuckians’ wishes. The legislature has passed a number of important bills over the last several years that reject far-left gender ideology. Such bills include SB 150 from 2023, which prohibited gender transitions of minors and banned radical gender ideology from K-12 classrooms. SB 83 also barred biological males from participating in female sports in 2022.
Kentuckians deserve transparency, fiscal responsibility, and policies that reflect their values—not secretive spending that funds harmful and controversial procedures. SB 2 and HB 154 are a move towards better stewardship of Kentucky taxpayer dollars.