A handful of Bowling Green residents, not dissuaded by being denied full access to the Kentucky Capitol on two other occasions, joined the statewide Poor People’s Campaign for another rally in Frankfort on Monday.

The group has been rallying in opposition to Kentucky’s Medicaid waiver and advocating broader tax reform, among other issues.

Michael Gramling, one of the Bowling Green participants, said this was the year’s sixth and final trip to Frankfort for the Kentucky Poor People’s group, many of whom will travel to Washington, D.C., this week for a nationwide Poor People’s rally.

“We have been at the Capitol every Monday for six weeks,” Gramling said. “Not since week two have they allowed us in the Capitol. It has been two-in, two-out access.”

The Rev. William Barber, co-chairman of the national Poor People’s Campaign, joined some 400 Kentuckians for a rally in Frankfort on June 4, when the group was told that only two of its members could enter the Capitol at a time.

They met with the same policy June 11, and Kentucky State Police Frankfort public affairs commander Josh Lawson said the limited access was because the group hadn’t sought approval to protest inside the building.

Lawson said the new protocol allowing only two members of the group at a time into the Capitol was put in place after a May 21 incident in which more than a dozen Poor People’s Campaign demonstrators remained in the building all night.

Despite efforts from at least a couple of Democratic state legislators to have the access policy investigated by Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, the group was allowed only limited access again Monday.

Gramling said Kentucky is the only state that has denied the group access to its Statehouse, and he said it is a dangerous precedent.

“Other folks can come and go as they please, but not us,” said Gramling, a consultant on early childhood education and former coordinator of the Western Kentucky University Head Start Teaching Center. “If they can keep us out, they can keep anyone out.”

Despite the limited access to the Capitol, another member of the Bowling Green contingent said the rally was “celebratory” as the group rallied on the Capitol steps and sang songs.

“We just hope to have our voices heard,” said Willie Huston.

Gramling said Poor People’s Campaign members were signing up Monday for one more chance to be heard.

“Folks are signing up for the trip to Washington,” he said.

Gramling said buses will leave from Bowling Green, Lexington and Louisville to take Kentuckians to the rally Saturday in the nation’s capital.

“There are weeklong activities in Washington,” he said. “It will all be nonviolent.”

Activism will continue after Saturday’s rally, Gramling predicted, including a focus on voter registration.