Anti-Beshear PAC ad falsely claims Democrats will abduct kids over gender identity
Democrats, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, will send the FBI to remove transgender children from their homes if their family members question their gender identity, according to a new digital ad from a conservative political action committee.
Kentucky Democrats have have not threatened to separate families or tried to ban dinner table conversation about gender or sexuality.
The one-minute ad was posted to YouTube Monday and paid for by the American Principles Project PAC, which has not spent funds placing any ads on television as of Tuesday morning according to ad tracking firm Medium Buying. The ad opens with a scene of a family — a mother, father and young teenage girl — eating dinner at their kitchen table.
During a lull in conversation between her parents, the child says, “Mom, Dad, I’m transgender. I think I might be a boy.”
“Honey,” her mother begins, “you know we love you no matter what, but, you’re a girl, so why would you say that?”
A short-haired woman in a black blazer immediately appears and interrupts her, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it right there, Mom. You don’t get to ask questions. That could hurt your child.”
Upset, the mom tells the woman to leave their house. “This is a family discussion,” Mom shouts.
The woman opens a leather briefcase and says, “Not anymore. Democrats passed a law banning these types of discussions. We’re going to have to take the kid with us. This home isn’t safe for them.”
The family becomes frantic. Then the FBI walks in.
This, the ad says, is “Andy Beshear’s ‘Equality Agenda’ for Kentucky families,” before flashing a link to LyingAndy.com.
“And the (Attorney General Daniel) Cameron campaign wonders why he’s collapsing in the polls,” Beshear campaign spokesperson Alex Floyd said in response to the ad late Monday afternoon. “There are no words for how absurd this ad is, and it blatantly lies to the people of Kentucky.”
When asked about the ad after a debate against Cameron Monday night in Northern Kentucky, Beshear called the ad “ridiculous” and said it “lies to people.”
Rebecca Blankenship, Kentucky’s first openly trans elected official and executive director of Ban Conversion Therapy, said Monday’s ad is “just another in a long line of the delusional and feverish. There is not one state or country on earth in which a family conversation about gender identity will result in a home visit by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, and nobody supports making it that way.”
Blankenship continued, “(Attorney) General Cameron will lose this race because he is seemingly incapable of addressing any material issue facing Kentucky families.”
Monday’s is the latest in a string of ads from independent conservative PACs backing Cameron, the Republican running to unseat Beshear, that feature some component of a “woke” culture threatening American families.
A catch-all phrase used by conservatives, “woke” has recently been used in Kentucky to reference LGBTQ individuals and their allies, diversity and inclusion practices, and proponents of Critical Race Theory, which many states, including Kentucky, have sought to ban.
Critical Race Theory, initially a framework for academic thinking, has been co-opted by conservatives to refer to curriculum that victimizes white people.
While Cameron has made anti-trans rhetoric, specifically, a cornerstone of his campaign messaging, ads from PACs that support but are not affiliated with his campaign, as well as mailers from the Republican Party of Kentucky, have elevated the intensity of that messaging.
A July ad depicting a drag queen accused Beshear of pushing a “radical transgender agenda” that’s “bombarding our children everywhere we turn. Child sex changes with permanent consequences. That’s Andy Beshear’s Kentucky.”
It was initially cited for “hate speech” by YouTube and temporarily removed.
The American Principles Project PAC has also released a handful in the last month.
Its messaging via mostly 30-second ads focuses on Beshear’s 2022 veto of a bill banning middle and high school girls from playing in girls’ sports, and his veto earlier this year of a GOP-backed Senate Bill 150.
The omnibus bill, now law, bans all gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, restricts public school curriculum on gender and sexuality, and requires schools to create policies preventing trans students from using the restroom that best corresponds with their gender identity.
The American Principles Project PAC ran similarly themed ads against Beshear in 2019’s gubernatorial race, when the Democrat defeated former GOP Gov. Matt Bevin by just around 5,000 votes. The 2019 ads focused particularly on transgender athletes’ participation in sports, with one spot showing a teenage boy dominating a high school girls wrestling competition.
Though Bevin lost narrowly to Beshear, the PAC has claimed that its 2019 ads in the Commonwealth moved a significant amount of votes toward Bevin. An analysis commissioned by the group and used in fundraising pitches showed that the ads on trans issues cut Bevin’s margin of defeat from 31,000 to around 5,000, according to POLITICO.
This September, American Principles Project President Terry Schilling announced the PAC’s plan to launch a $2 million ad campaign targeting Beshear’s “extreme” record on LGBTQ rights issues.
“Four years ago, APP PAC ran our first political campaign on protecting women’s sports in Kentucky, warning voters that Andy Beshear would undermine female athletes if elected,” Schilling said in a statement. “At the time, we were fiercely attacked by Democrats and their allies in the media, who claimed we were trying to create a ‘wedge issue’ out of nothing. Nevertheless, our $600,000 campaign netted over 25,000 votes and nearly resulted in victory.”
“While Beshear still deceitfully claims to be a ‘moderate’ governor, voters deserve to know the truth: He is completely beholden to the radical transgender industry and has as extreme a record as almost any other governor in America,” Schilling added.
A recent American Principles PAC ad, titled “Real Man,” features Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied a trans woman for fifth place in an NCAA championship in 2020. Gaines has since become a crusader among right-wing conservatives for her often brash criticism of trans women competing in women’s sports.
She spoke at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Louisville alongside Cameron in August.
“Gov. Andy Beshear, a real man wouldn’t let men steal trophies from us,” Gaines says in the ad, misgendering Lia Thomas, whom Gaines tied. “And he wouldn’t let men in girls’ locker rooms. That’s why I’m supporting a real man this November: Daniel Cameron for governor.”
Another ad begins with what looks like decades-old home video footage. “Remember when things were normal?” A voice over begins. “When boys were boys and girls were girls. Remember when you didn’t know if your teacher was married, let alone their sexual preferences?”
“Remember when you didn’t have to worry about a man being in your daughter’s private spaces?” the ad asks, referencing Beshear’s veto of SB 150.
Of the torrent of advertisements from each respective campaign and the PACs who support them this election cycle, Monday’s is among the most extreme, hearkening back to a similarly exaggerated ad from Kelly Craft, whom Cameron defeated in the primary this spring.
Showing “woke bureaucrats” literally parachuting onto public school campuses to “hijack” classroom discussion — a purple-haired teacher forces a teenager to give her pronouns — the ad portrays an amplified picture of “wokeness” infiltrating kids’ learning.
Both ads share a similar theme: LGBTQ people and their allies are a threat to the American family.
It’s a message Cameron, himself, has repeated on the campaign trail, albeit with more restraint.
“We need to make sure our schools are about reading, writing and math, and they’re not incubators for liberal and progressive ideas,” he said at an Eastern Kentucky campaign stop in late July.
“You’ve also had a governor who has said that he’s OK with biological males playing in women’s sports,” Cameron added. “Your values are at stake in this race for governor.”
Reporter Austin Horn contributed to this report.
