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.
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,
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/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.
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.
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.
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.
