For Kentucky lawmakers, sexual harassment isn't 'ethical misconduct.' That could change

Alex Acquisto, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jul 8, 2025

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The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission is recommending lawmakers amend the state ethics code to explicitly define and prohibit “sexual harassment” as a form of “ethical misconduct.”

Ahead of its July 8 meeting, the Legislative Ethics Commission has formally called on lawmakers to pass a bill during the 2026 General Assembly to amend the Kentucky Code of Legislative Ethics to “define and prohibit sexual harassment as ethical misconduct,” according to the ethics commission’s June newsletter.

The commission’s recommendation comes less than a month after it heard testimony from two women who say they were sexually harassed by Rep. Daniel Grossberg, a Louisville Democrat.

The Herald-Leader first reported the then-anonymous accounts of Kentucky Young Democrats President Allison Wiseman and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilwoman Emma Curtis last year, along with other stories from more women and people who knew Grossberg, who detailed a behavioral pattern that dated back to college.

Grossberg has denied any wrongdoing.

Grossberg also testified at that six-hour closed-door June 17 ethics commission hearing, as did the co-owner and former manager of Foxys Gentlemen’s Club in Louisville. Grossberg was kicked out and banned for life from the strip club, the Herald-Leader reported last year, after he attempted to touch a dancer’s genitals on stage and solicited another for prostitution.

One freshman lawmaker said she was “surprised” to learn earlier this year that sexual harassment wasn’t already considered ethical misconduct in state statute.

Rep. Kim Holloway, R-Mayfield, filed House Bill 371 during the 2025 General Assembly, which proposed defining and prohibiting any lawmaker or legislative agent from intentionally engaging in sexual harassment. Holloway filed it after the ethics commission asked her to, she said Monday.

Holloway said she’d be glad to carry the bill again next year.

“I was just thinking that was something that would’ve already been taken care of years ago,” she said. “You would think, in 2025, with the things that go on these days, access to social media and to each other, that it would just have already been addressed.”

Holloway’s bill accumulated bipartisan sponsors, but the bill didn’t receive a committee hearing.

The commission is statutorily obligated by July 1 of each year to submit recommendations for “any statutory revisions it deems necessary,” ethics commission Executive Director Emily Dennis said.

The current ethics code, which originally dates back to the early 1990s, includes rules and specific prohibitions against conflicts of interest, inappropriate campaign contributions and receiving certain financial compensation or gifts.

But there’s no explicit prohibition against sexual harassment, or language that formally categorizes sexual harassment as unethical behavior, Dennis said.

The nine-member commission encourages lawmakers to “create a comprehensive ethical prohibition against sexual harassment by legislators and legislative agents against legislative branch employees, legislators or legislative agents. This would include the following:

•Specifically define ‘sexual harassment’ as actions that violate either Kentucky or federal statutes, regulations or case law relating to protected classifications

•Prohibit legislators and legislative agents from engaging in sexual harassment against an employee of the legislative branch, legislator or legislative agent and provide that a violation is ethical misconduct.”

The commission has not decided whether it will further its investigation into the misconduct allegations against Grossberg, but it could make a determination at its July 8 meeting.

Grossberg has fought the allegations against him, going so far as to file a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court ahead of the June 17 hearing to halt the ethics investigation, claiming he was the victim of bullying and discrimination because he is neurodiverse and Jewish. A judge denied his request, but Grossberg has the option to appeal.

Grossberg’s attorney Thomas Clay said he and his client are waiting on a decision from the commission — whether there’s probable cause to continue investigating his alleged misconduct, which would lead to a public hearing — before they decide to appeal the Franklin Circuit ruling.

Of this recommended ethics code change, Clay said, “I have no issue with the proposed sexual harassment addition, as long as it complies with state and federal requirements.”

While the commission has the power to investigate potential violations of ethical misconduct and to make recommendations to the General Assembly on statutory changes that should be made, only lawmakers maintain the power to make those changes.

Of the commission’s latest recommendation, Dennis said, “it’s another attempt to put it in there, to make it clear that that conduct violates the code.”