Eighteen municipalities across Kentucky have adopted nondiscriminatory LGBTQ “fairness” ordinances, and now, nine senators want to make it statewide.
On Jan. 30, Kentucky Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, was joined by eight other senators in introducing Senate Bill 130 or the State Fairness Law, giving the bill more bipartisan support than it has had in the past.
Despite the fact that Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Vicco, Frankfort, Morehead, Danville, Midway, Paducah, Maysville, Henderson Dayton, Georgetown, Versailles, Bellvue, Highland Heights, Fort Thomas, and Woodford County have passed an ordinance, Sen. Robby Mills, a Henderson Republican, says he doesn’t think a statewide bill will make it through the Senate.
“It is the perennial fairness ordinance that is filed every year,” he said. “It won’t advance anywhere in the Senate; it doesn’t have the support. Obviously I am opposed to any state or local ordinance.”
Sen. Matt Castlen, an Owensboro Republican, believes “in the Constitution as written,” he said.
“We are abundantly blessed to live in the freest nation in the world,” he said. “Guarded by our constitution of a republic democracy. Each individual is given the freedom to make their own choice. I believe that the way that the law is currently written upholds our equal rights.”
Sen. C.B. Embry, a Morgantown Republican, could not be reached for comment.
McGarvey was joined by bill co-sponsors Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican, Senators Tom Buford, a Nicholasville Republican, and Alice Forgy Kerr, a Lexington Republican, as well as Senators Perry Clark, a Louisville Democrat, Julian Carroll, a Frankfort Democrat, Denise Harper Angel, a Louisville Democrat, Gerald Neal, a Louisville Democrat, and Reginald Thomas, a Lexington Democrat. If passed, the bill would ban LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations statewide.
According to the Fairness Campaign, an organization founded in 1991 that is dedicated to achieving equal rights for LGBTQ people through seeing the development and passing of comprehensive civil rights legislation, more than a quarter of Kentucky’s population is protected by municipal LGBTQ Fairness Ordinances across the commonwealth, leaving nearly 75% of Kentuckians still vulnerable to legal discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Currently, the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, KRS 344, prohibits discrimination by race, color, religion, natural origin, sex, or disability in situations relating to employment, sale or lease of real property, public accommodations, financial transactions, housing insurance, and credit transactions. The proposed bill would amend the current civil rights statutes to include the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The measure would also broaden the duties of state and local human rights commissions to include protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in regard to various labor and employment practices, according to the bill’s local government mandate statement.
Essentially, the passage of the statewide bill would require that any city, charter county, consolidated local urban-county or unified local government conform and adopt or amend local civil rights laws to incorporate the language of the bill, whether local government officials support a nondiscrimination ordinance or not.
On a local level, Daviess Fiscal Court has been presented with an ordinance and has hosted the first of two community forums to gather public input. The second forum will be 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Brescia University’s Taylor Lecture Hall.
A statewide Fairness Rally is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CST on Feb. 19, at the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda to mark the 20th anniversary of a statewide fairness law being introduced to the Kentucky General Assembly. The rally will also focus on banning conversion therapy, advancing discrimination protections as well as protest recent “attacks” on transgender youths, according to the campaign.
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Written by Jacob Mulliken. Cross-posted from the
Messenger-Inquirer via the Kentucky Press News Service.