It's been a very busy day here at the state capitol as we near the close of the 2023 Kentucky General Assembly.

Tomorrow is the last day for lawmakers before they break for almost two weeks and then return at the end of March to try to override any vetoes from Governor Andy Beshear.

We begin tonight with one of the most controversial bills of the legislative session, House Bill 470.

The measure would restrict treatment options for trans youth and now includes language from other controversial bills, like a Senate bill requiring parental notification on any course about human sexuality.

But some lawmakers indicated yesterday the controversial bill could be scaled back and a Senate amendment getting some traction could change large portions of the bill.

Starting off our legislative update, our Kacey Parker bill spoke with a fairness campaign's executive director about house bill 470, the potential for changes to the bill and the impact it would have on the LGBTQ plus community.

Why House Bill for Seven is so detrimental to the LGBTQ community.

I mean, 470 in its original form was already a bill that was likely to kill Kentucky's kids for 70, denies medically accurate and necessary gender affirming care for transgender youth.

And we know that that is exactly the type of care that stops suicidality and self-harm amongst trans kids, lowers the incidence of depression.

And taking that away is going to make one of our state's most vulnerable groups of children much more at risk.

But of course, it wasn't enough that House Bill 470 was already going to endanger Kentucky's kids and put a dangerous government overreach into the lives of parents and parents rights to obtain the medical care that they believe is best for their children.

But now they have added all sorts of other anti LGBTQ measures to House Bill 470.

Now it includes a bathroom bill that tells trans kids where they can and can't use the restroom in school, a bill that we killed nearly a decade ago and now it's back from the dead, a zombie bill.

It includes the pronoun bill that would give teachers the right to refuse to use correct names and pronouns for transgender students.

And maybe worst of all, in the new additions to House Bill 470 is a broad overreaching.

Don't say gay, don't say trans provision.

That would put a chilling effect on speech in Kentucky.

Schools making certain that teachers are no longer allowed to talk about LGBTQ people, probably not even be able to discuss LGBTQ parents that students have.

They want to erase trans kids and LGBTQ kids across the board from Kentucky schools.

It's not going to happen.

It's not going to work.

But they're probably going to pass the bill.

Has Bill for 70 state senators gave some indication that they might not pass the bill in its current form.

There have been amendments filed to it.

How do you feel about the amendments that have been filed so far?

Yeah, the amendments don't do nearly enough.

However, the Carol Amendments Senator Danny Carol's amendment on House Bill 470 is the one that would allow for some life saving care for transgender kids.

It allows, at least for puberty regulators to be prescribed by medical professionals and takes that government overreach part of it, at the very least, out of the law.

Several several of the other amendments would still go way too far.

And so we're hoping to see if any of those amendments pass muster that it is Senate floor Amendment two from Senator Danny Carroll.

Thank you.

Casey Burton, Senator Danny Carroll, who you just heard talked about.

He has a floor amendment that would remove a large portion of the original text of House Bill 470.

The bill could be taken up by the Senate at any time.

If the measure passes with the Senate changes, it would still need approval from the House.