Kentucky Legislature overrode Beshear's veto to enact SB 83, banning transgender girls from school sports

On April 13, 2022, the Kentucky General Assembly voted to override Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of Senate Bill 83, the "Save Women's Sports Act," enacting it into law as Acts Chapter 198. SB 83 amends KRS 156.070 to require the Board of Education or its designated agency to promulgate regulations requiring schools that participate in interscholastic athletics to designate every athletic team by the biological sex of eligible students, and it bars students who are male based on sex assigned at birth — including transgender girls — from competing on girls'-designated teams, from sixth grade through college. The law also creates a private civil cause of action against a school that lets a transgender girl compete, and bars the designated athletic agency from entertaining complaints about the exclusion.

Beshear had vetoed the bill, and the Republican-controlled legislature reversed him with the override vote, making Kentucky the 15th state to enact this type of ban. The ACLU of Kentucky said the law violated students' equal-protection and privacy rights and Title IX, noting similar bans had already been blocked by federal courts in Idaho and West Virginia.