Keturah Herron
The summer of 2020 called many to rethink their lives, including Keturah Herron. “After Breonna Taylor was murdered, I would often speak in different spaces about [how] we need our own people to run for office,” says Herron, who at the time was a policy strategist at the ACLU of Kentucky. “Those same people said ‘We need you to run.’” Herron first created Breonna’s Law, which restricts no-knock search warrants like the one that ended Taylor’s life. It passed in Louisville 17 days later. She then took the advice she was given and ran for public office. Now as Representative for Kentucky House District 42 and the first out individual elected to the Kentucky State Legislature, Herron is focusing on connecting with the community she serves—now different thanks to redistricting since her election. “I am ready to meet youth, community leaders, business owners, and anyone who has an interest,” Herron tells GO. “My goal is every year to have more people…who are voters [and] who understand the legislative process on the local and state level.” For Herron, who holds a Masters in Corrections and Juvenile Justice Studies from Eastern Kentucky University, embracing her identity is a major part of enacting change. “When I come into a space, I have so many parts of who I am. Being queer and a woman is a piece,” she says. She is also “a Black woman, someone who has been directly impacted by the criminal legal system, someone growing up in rural Kentucky. I have a lot of things to say.” Herron finds that confidence begets connection: “I have learned the more comfortable I am with myself, the easier it is for others to show up around me the same way.” –LE
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