Did a Republican state legislator in Kentucky support a bill that would "make sex with first cousin not incest"? No, that's not true: Although a draft of the bill struck out "first cousin" as a category included in Kentucky's incest statute, Nick Wilson, the state legislator in question, said that the edit was a mistake. The actual purpose of the bill is to broaden the offenses outlined in the state's incest statute, not narrow them.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on January 17, 2024. It included a video from an article titled "Kentucky Republican Pushes Bill to Make Sex With First Cousin Not Incest." The text included in the video opened:
Kentucky Republican, Nick Wilson, has proposed a bill to amend the state's incest law
The bill aims to remove 'first cousin' from the list of relationships defined as incestuous
This is how the post looked on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thu Jan 18 17:08:19 2024 UTC)
The video from the article was published by Newsweek on January 17, 2024 (archived here). Unlike the video, however, the article adds additional context saying that Wilson withdrew the bill. It also said that '"an error was made during the drafting process."
An archived version of the original draft of the bill, numbered HB269 in the 2024 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, shows that while "first cousin" is struck out, the bill's purpose was to add "sexual contact" to the state's incest statute. At the time of writing, only "sexual intercourse" and "deviant sexual intercourse" are considered incest by the state's incest statute, numbered 530.020 (archived here).
The strikethrough of "first cousin" in the original draft of the bill was a mistake, according to Wilson. He released a statement via Facebook on January 17, 2024, explaining the purpose of the bill, why it was withdrawn, and that he plans to refile it with "first cousin" included (archived here). He also sent the same statement to Newsweek, and it is included in the article.
Other Lead Stories debunks of claims related to incest can be found here.
