Andy Beshear calls out Trump’s abuse of faith while accepting LGBTQ+ allyship award

As LGBTQ+ rights face sustained political attack across the country, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund used its annual National Champagne Brunch in Washington, D.C., on Sunday to celebrate both rising queer leadership and the allies who have stood with them on difficult ground.

One of the afternoon’s most prominent honorees was Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor and a potential 2028 presidential contender, who received the group’s Allyship Award at the Salamander Washington DC. In remarks that wove together faith, politics, and an unsparing critique of anti-LGBTQ+ policymaking, Beshear cast his support for LGBTQ+ rights not as a strategic calculation, but as a moral obligation.

“I never thought I’d get an award for just doing what’s right,” he told the crowd, insisting that “there should never be a false choice between rejecting discrimination and winning elections."

He also took aim at President Donald Trump, accusing him of weaponizing religion to divide Americans and invoking recent controversies to underscore his point. Beshear criticized Trump’s public clash with Pope Leo XIV and mentioned an AI-generated image depicting Trump as Jesus that the president posted to his Truth Social account, arguing that both episodes reflected a broader pattern of exploiting faith for political gain. “He has used it and manipulated it to divide and to discriminate,” Beshear said, adding that Trump “tries to sell Bibles” but “ought to actually read one.”

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Beshear pointed to his own reelection in one of the country’s most reliably red states as proof of concept. “I am living, breathing proof that it is possible to win everywhere if we stand firm on our values of compassion, of empathy, and of doing right by our neighbors — all of them, no exceptions, and certainly never discrimination,” he said.

He revisited his veto of Republican anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Kentucky, including bills targeting transgender youth, and laid out the political logic behind it. While Republicans spent heavily on ads attacking trans kids, his campaign stayed focused on jobs, infrastructure, and economic concerns. “They ran ads on hate. I ran ads on hope and progress,” he said, noting that he won reelection by five percentage points.

His vetoes did not ultimately prevent the legislation from passing. Each time Beshear vetoed an anti-LGBTQ+ bill, the Republican supermajority overrode him. The most significant was Senate Bill 150, which he vetoed in March 2023, warning it would cause an increase in suicide among Kentucky’s youth. Republicans overrode it anyway, and the bill became law. A 2022 veto of a ban on transgender girls competing in school sports met the same fate. His executive order banning conversion therapy, once a rare lasting win, was also eventually nullified: the Republican-led legislature passed House Bill 495 to overturn it, and the practice is now legally protected in Kentucky under state law.

In an exchange with reporters, including The Advocate, Beshear condemned a recent Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to overturning conversion therapy bans. “That decision … is wrong, it’s horrifying. Torture is torture, and it should never be done in the name of religion or free speech,” he said.

When asked about the pressure some Democrats feel to distance themselves from transgender rights, he rejected the premise without hesitation. "Discrimination is never OK. It’s not a bargaining chip so that you can win elections,” he said.

He was equally direct about whether LGBTQ+ issues should be deprioritized in national messaging heading into 2028. “We should be the true party of inclusion where people feel that they can come and be exactly who they are,” he said, arguing that Democrats can champion broad economic concerns while also choosing to “push back against discrimination.” He said that the two are not in conflict.

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Faith threaded through nearly every part of Beshear’s remarks, both in his speech and in his conversations with the press. He was critical of those who invoke religion to justify discrimination, arguing that such use of faith represents a fundamental distortion of its purpose. “Faith is meant to lift people up and never kick anyone while they’re down,” he said, warning that religion has been "manipulated … to divide and to discriminate."

His central argument, returned to again and again, was that supporting LGBTQ+ people carries no real political cost, only a moral one if abandoned. “Wrong’s wrong,” he said. “And I’m not going to do wrong."

Before the speeches got underway, Evan Low, the Victory Fund’s president and CEO, spoke with reporters about a shift the organization is tracking: a growing concentration of LGBTQ+ political power in states where it was once unthinkable. “You should be excited to see that we have a number of LGBTQ+ legislative leaders in red states and purple states … not just about representation, but governing power,” Low said, stressing that the group’s mission centers on placing LGBTQ+ officials “in the driver’s seat.”

He also acknowledged a troubling countercurrent in the rise of hostility and threats, which is discouraging some qualified candidates from running at all. The organization plans to release new data documenting what LGBTQ+ candidates and elected officials encounter on the campaign trail, describing conditions as “challenging and difficult.” Despite that, Low said the broader strategy remains anchored in visibility and human connection. “We want to win the hearts and minds … to build bridges,” he said, with success hinging on reminding voters that LGBTQ+ people are “your neighbors and your friends and your family members.”

For Beshear, the argument that inclusion and electoral success are compatible — not competing — is already defining his national profile. “It just has to do with right and wrong,” he said. “We shouldn’t be allowing a little bit of discrimination in order to do better in the polls.”