Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear defended his 2022 veto of a bill barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” telling host Jake Tapper that Democrats “don’t throw anybody under the bus.”
Tapper pressed Beshear on his veto of Senate Bill 83, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which required girls’ and women’s athletic teams to be based on biological sex and barred male students from competing on them from sixth grade through college. Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature overrode the veto.
“Here’s my take. We don’t throw anybody under the bus,” Beshear said. “That is not the party that we are. We start as a party of compassion and empathy. And I tell you what. If we want to ruin sports, put government in charge of them.”
Beshear told Tapper he supports fair competition and said Kentucky already had adequate protections through the Kentucky High School Athletic Association before the law passed.
“Sports need to be fair, and there should be no unfair advantage,” Beshear said. “But, in Kentucky, we already had rules in place with our Kentucky High School Athletic Association that prevented any of the things that you saw ultimately in colleges or the rest.”
Kentucky legislative records confirm Senate Bill 83 dealt only with athletics and did not touch transgender medical treatments for minors. Those provisions were part of a separate bill, Senate Bill 150, passed in 2023, which restricted transgender medical treatments for minors and required schools to limit restroom, locker room and shower access based on biological sex. Beshear vetoed that bill too, citing parental-rights and mental-health concerns. Lawmakers overrode that veto as well. Beshear’s campaign said at the time his opposition to SB 150 was based on multiple provisions in the bill, not specifically its restriction on sex-change surgeries for minors.
The Republican National Committee wasted no time going after Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential contender, over his record. RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre issued a statement to Fox News Digital accusing Beshear of putting transgender policy ahead of female athletes.
“Democrats claim to be the party of women,” Baldassarre said. “But they can’t define what a woman is and have no issues when men expose themselves in locker rooms or take over women’s sports. Andy Beshear can pretend he’s for fairness, but his woke trans record shows he traded girls’ safety for applause from men in dresses.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear for comment but had not received a response as of publication.
