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National Advances Reflected in Kentucky Legislature Unprecedented Fairness Progress in 2010 General Print E-mail
Thursday, April 29, 2010, 1:35 pm

 After recent legislative sessions targeting and attacking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Kentuckians through anti-Fairness laws, the 2010 Kentucky legislature saw unprecedented progress for Fairness in the commonwealth.  

 

No Anti-Fairness Legislation Filed

 

For the first time in years, no legislator in the Kentucky Senate or House filed legislation targeting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Kentuckians. Just last year, Shelbyville Senator Gary Tapp introduced Senate Bill 68, which would have barred any unmarried cohabitating couples from fostering or adopting children in the commonwealth. Fairness advocates rallied to quickly defeat that legislation with strong support from foster and adoption agencies, social workers, and faith-based groups across the state.

 

Last week similar legislation in Arkansas was struck down as unconstitutional. The Judge in the case reiterated the main point the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition and its supporters made in the spring of 2009, that such legislation does not “serve the State’s interest in determining what is in the best interest of the child.”

 

Pro-Adoption Bill Heard in House

 

In response to last year’s failed anti-adoption measure, Rep. Tom Burch of Louisville this year introduced dual parent adoption House Bill 195, which would allow unmarried partners the legal ability to become parents of the children for whom they care.

 

Family court attorney and gay adoptive father Bryan Gatewood offered expert testimony to the House Health and Welfare Committee on the need for such a law in a March 11 hearing on the bill. He cited the loss of children’s rights to receive many of the benefits legally adopted children enjoy, such as the right to Social Security benefits upon the death of a parent, the right to be covered by both parents’ insurance, the right to receive child support and more. Toni Joyce, Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers, reinforced Mr. Gatewood’s testimony with a personal plea for the children who this type of legal disenfranchisement affects, and both then fielded positive questions from legislators.

 

Mr. Gatewood and Ms. Joyce both requested Committee Chair Burch hold additional informational hearings during the interim committee meetings of the summer.

 

Record Number of Cosponsors on Statewide Fairness Bill

 

A record number of legislators signed on to Rep. Mary Lou Marzian’s statewide anti-discrimination Fairness House Bill 117, this year adding Rep. Arnold Simpson of Covington. Sen. Kathy Stein once more proposed a companion piece of legislation, Senate Bill 138.  

 

The law would amend the Kentucky Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classifications, prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations in the commonwealth, a move unanimously endorsed by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights in a 2008 Resolution sent to the Governor. It would make Kentucky the 21st state to extend such protections, and the first in the South. Currently only Covington, Lexington and Louisville have legal protections in Kentucky.

 

Hospital Visitation Rights Measure Passes House Unanimously

 

For the second year, Rep. Mary Lou Marzian’s hospital visitation rights House Bill 118, passed out of the Health and Welfare Committee with bi-partisan support. This session, the bill was approved unanimously on the House floor with a 99-0 vote.

 

The law would “allow a patient of a health facility who is 18 years of age or older to designate, in writing, an individual not legally related by marriage or blood, who the patient wishes to have visitation rights.” It is identical to the protections President Barack Obama called on the US Department of Health and Human Services to enact in an executive memorandum last Thursday, April 15.

 

Sponsors and cosponsors of 2010 Fairness legislation in Kentucky: Sen. Denise Harper Angel, Sen. Gerald Neal, Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, Sen. Kathy Stein, Rep. Tom Burch, Rep. Kelly Flood, Rep. Joni Jenkins, Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, Rep. Reggie Meeks, Rep. Darryl Owens, Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, Rep. Arnold Simpson, Rep. Jim Wayne and Rep. Susan Westrom.  

KY Statewide Fairness Coalition

ACLU of Kentucky, Fairness Campaign, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights

Kentucky Fairness Alliance, Lexington Fairness

 
Coalition organizes for daily protests at WKU Print E-mail
Monday, March 22, 2010, 8:29 am

This article first appeared on Friday March 19, 2010 in the Bowling Green Daily News.  It features ACLU of Kentucky Board Member Patricia Minter, who has been working tirelessly with faculty and students to implement domestic partner benefits at Western KY University.  The ACLU of Kentucky and our Fairness Coalition partners support these efforts and encourage all fair-minded Kentuckians to do the same.


LIZ SWITZER, The Daily News, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it /783-3240
Published: March 19, 2010


A coalition of faculty and students at Western Kentucky University is
organizing to protest recent action by the school’s Benefits Committee
to deny benefits to same-sex and opposite sex unmarried couples.

Faculty regent Patricia Minter and Student Government Association
President Kevin Smiley both publicly expressed disappointment at the
committee’s decision at a University Senate meeting Thursday, calling
for WKU President Gary Ransdell to intervene. Ransdell, who arrived at
the meeting after the comments were made, said he has no such plans to
do so. If he did intend to step into the fray, “we wouldn’t need a
benefits committee,” Ransdell said after the meeting.

The committee, whose decisions are nonbinding, meets regularly and “will
continue to address” the issue and “consider their options,” Ransdell said.

Read more...
 
Community Challenge-Promote Fairness, support HB 117 Print E-mail
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 9:54 am

This Op-Ed was originally published in the February 15th edition of the Courier-Journal.

In January of 1966, with Governor Edward T. Breathitt’s signing of a law Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the strongest and most comprehensive civil rights bill passed by a Southern state,” the Commonwealth of Kentucky became the first state in the South to adopt a Civil Rights Act with enforceable repercussions for acts of discrimination. Two years later, Kentucky was again first in the South, this time in the passage of a statewide fair housing law, which cemented our commonwealth’s legacy as the nation’s Southern civil rights leader.

At its core, the purpose of the Civil Rights Act is to ensure equality for everyone. It ensures all Kentuckians have the same opportunities to earn a living, be safe in their communities, serve their country, and care for the ones they love. When there has been a history of a particular groups’ lack of access to these fundamentals of the American dream, the just and appropriate response has been to add that particular group to existing antidiscrimination laws.

Today our state has the opportunity to once again stand as the pioneer of fairness and equality among its Southern peers, and we challenge each and every Kentuckian to add their voice to the call for comprehensive civil rights legislation in the commonwealth.

On January 5, Louisville Representative Mary Lou Marzian and three other Kentucky legislators (Reps. Flood, Jenkins and Palumbo) filed House Bill 117—a statewide Fairness law—that seeks to amend our state’s Civil Rights Act to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classifications, prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Kentuckians in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Even today, any person suspected of being gay or transgender outside Lexington, Louisville, or Covington may be legally fired from their job, denied housing, or withheld access to any public accommodation—such as a bus ride or service in a restaurant.


 

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Fairness Coalition receives vote of confidence from National funders! Print E-mail
Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 5:45 pm

The Tides Foundation’s State Equality Fund, a philanthropic partnership that includes the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the Gill Foundation, and anonymous donors, has awarded the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition $30,000 to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality. The Fund is programmatically staffed on behalf of the donors by the Gill Foundation’s Movement Building Center.

The Fairness Coalition is an alliance of the various organizations and individuals working for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Kentucky.  Our primary goal is to win a statewide ordinance that extends protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity within the Kentucky Civil Rights statute.  We recognize that to accomplish this long-term goal we will need to build a statewide base of support with incremental victories on the local level.  By joining forces, we enhance the capacity of the individual organizations with a sharing of resources, strategies, and goals, increased communication, and a strengthened and expanded base of allies of LGBT equality.

Founding members of the Fairness Coalition include the ACLU of Kentucky, Fairness Campaign, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, Kentucky Fairness Alliance, and Lexington Fairness.

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Working Together for Full Equality in Kentucky Print E-mail
Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 6:29 pm
Statewide work on LGBT rights continues to expand with the Fairness Coalition of allied organizations.  The Coalition is a result of a summit convened in the Fall of 2008, to bring together organizations committed to working for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Kentucky.  The primary goal is comprehensive civil rights protections prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

The summit assembled 50 delegates from 11 organizations throughout the state with broad representation across lines of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and geography.   Participants worked with an outside consultant to analyze the political landscape of the state, set goals for the coalition, and develop a shared mission and plan.

We realize that to accomplish our long-term goals and to increase the capacity of the individual organizations we must improve communication, share resources, and work together to strengthen and expand the base of support for LGBT equality.

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