LGBTQIA Council

We are Kentucky

Drea Hurley

Kentucky Redistricting and Fair Maps: 10 Actions You Can Take Today.

Legislation

Every ten years, new census data triggers redistricting. Lines are redrawn for Congress, the state legislature, county commissions, school boards, and city councils. Good maps keep communities together so voters choose their leaders. Bad maps can predetermine outcomes and weaken the voices of working people, rural residents, Black and brown Kentuckians, and LGBTQ+ communities. Kentucky redistricting and fair maps are a powerful tool that in the wrong hands, can disenfranchise voters.

Why redistricting shapes fairness

Kentucky redistricting and fair maps start with equal population so each vote carries similar weight. They should be contiguous and reasonably compact, comply with the Voting Rights Act, and respect communities of interest, which are neighborhoods or groups that share ties like schools, economy, transit, or culture. When mapmakers slice a community across multiple districts, it is called cracking. When they cram many of its voters into a single district, it is called packing. Both tactics distort representation, mute constituent service, and reduce accountability, because elected officials feel safe from competition rather than responsive to voters.

What this looks like in everyday life

When mapmakers split a neighborhood into three districts, residents struggle to secure funding for clinics or safer streets because no single official takes responsibility. When they pack parents and students into one school board district, families gain one reliable champion but lose influence across the rest of the board. For LGBTQ+ Kentuckians, dividing supportive precincts buries nondiscrimination priorities, while packing them sidelines those priorities to a single seat. These tactics reduce competition, weaken incentives to listen, and produce policies that drift away from what most people want.

Kentucky redistricting and fair maps decide who holds power before anyone votes. Fair maps keep communities whole so voters choose their leaders. Unfair maps fracture neighborhoods, silence voices, and lock in outcomes. Here is how you can take action, step by step.

3-minute actions – What You Can Do To Fight Kentucky Redistricting and Fair Maps

  1. Call both U.S. Senators from Kentucky and ask for transparent, community-first redistricting standards.
    • Sen. Mitch McConnell (DC): (202) 224-2541. 
    • Sen. Rand Paul (DC): (202) 224-4343.
    If lines are busy, use the U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your member.
  2. Call your U.S. House member and make the same ask. If you are not sure who represents you, use the House “Find Your Representative” tool and call the DC office listed.
  3. Ask for public criteria: equal population, Voting Rights Act compliance, compactness, and protecting “communities of interest” like school zones, transit corridors, and cultural neighborhoods.
  4. Ask for sunlight: publish draft maps early, post data and shapefiles, and allow real public comment before any vote.
  5. Share a 3-sentence story. Explain how your area is split or packed and what service suffers because of it. Personal stories get logged and passed to staff.

15-minute actions

  1. Email all three of your federal offices with the same message and attach a screenshot of your neighborhood on a map.
  2. Identify your city council, county commission, and school board districts and ask when local lines are reviewed. Many local maps change outside the statewide timeline.
  3. Submit written testimony that defines your community’s boundaries and shared needs.
  4. Recruit two neighbors from a different precinct to make the same calls this week.
  5. Write a short letter to the editor about why competitive, community-based maps matter in your county.

Sample call script

“Hello, my name is ___, I live in ___ County. I am calling about redistricting. I want transparent, public criteria and maps that keep our community together so voters choose their leaders. Please support posting draft maps with data, real time for public comment, and protections for communities of interest. Can I get the office’s position and a reply?”

Who represents Kentucky in Congress

U.S. Senators: Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.

U.S. Representatives by district: 1 Comer, 2 Guthrie, 3 McGarvey, 4 Massie, 5 Rogers, 6 Barr. If you are unsure which district you are in, use the House lookup tool by ZIP code.

We can help

If you want talking points or a map screenshot for your neighborhood, message our Page and join our Facebook group to coordinate testimony and rides to hearings.

Note: Direct numbers are current as of publication. If a line changes, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected.

Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ Youth Just Lost a Lifeline

Legislation, Newsletter

On July 17, 2025, the Trump administration eliminated the LGBTQ+-specific “Press 3” option from the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. This decision deepened the ongoing LGBTQ+ youth mental health crisis in Kentucky. For many queer and trans young people across the state, it marked more than just a policy shift. It quietly erased one of the few crisis services they could trust, one that offered affirming, life-saving support in moments of extreme vulnerability.

At a time when suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth in Kentucky remain dangerously high, this loss sends a clear and harmful message: that queer lives, particularly in rural and conservative communities, are seen as expendable.

What We’ve Lost

The “Press 3” feature gave LGBTQ+ callers direct access to counselors trained to support queer and trans youth. Since its launch in 2022, the service fielded over 1.3 million calls, texts, and chats in less than three years.

Now that resource is gone, taking with it the only assurance many LGBTQ+ youth had that someone on the other end of the line would affirm their identity and understand their crisis. In Kentucky, where queer and trans youth already face isolation, stigma, and limited access to mental health care, the loss hits especially hard.

Kentucky Youth Advocates report the following:

  • 43 percent of LGBTQ+ Kentuckians aged 13 to 24 seriously considered suicide in the past year.
  • 14 percent attempted suicide.
  • In 2023 alone, 30 youth and 90 young adults in Kentucky died by suicide.

“We have to take care of ourselves”

Jeremy Ellis, a longtime LGBTQ+ leader in Lexington, responded directly to the shutdown. “This is sad. We as queer people are aware of this, we have to take care of ourselves,” Ellis told LEX18. “Queer kids in rural parts of the state need this line the most.”

As a result, the responsibility now shifts to local organizations, school counselors, mutual aid networks, and LGBTQIA+ adults, many of whom are already stretched thin. With the loss of a vital support line, these community members must take on even more, despite limited resources, to confront the growing LGBTQ+ youth mental health crisis in Kentucky.

What’s Still Available

Although “Press 3” has ended, several national hotlines remain active and LGBTQ+-affirming:

These resources are not state-funded. They are run by nonprofits and volunteers, many of whom are doing this work without institutional backing. The burden should not be on them alone.

Join the LGBTQ Council for Kentucky Democrats as a Sustaining Contributor