With a unanimous vote of 5-0 August 6, 2019, the Northern Kentucky town of Dayton, population 5,338, became the twelfth city in the Commonwealth with a Fairness Ordinance prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
"Dayton is extremely excited to be able to join the other eleven cities, out of 419 in the Commonwealth, to continue to be the welcoming community we know and love," said Dayton Mayor Ben Baker upon the ordinance's passage. "If any other river cities need help in embracing the Fairness Ordinance, please reach out. We urge our state leaders to adopt these protections—in Kentucky, y'all means all."
Dayton City Councilman Joe Neary added, "I genuinely hope this carries up to the state level so cities don't have to deal by this city by city. I can't believe we'll only be the twelfth in the Commonwealth."
"We expect Dayton will be the first in a series of Northern Kentucky cities to adopt Fairness Ordinances," shared Northern Kentucky Fairness leader Bonnie Meyer, who also helps run the Northern Kentucky Pride Festival. "We were proud to see Covington challenge its peer cities to follow their lead on LGBTQ rights."
Eleven other Kentucky cities have adopted local Fairness Ordinances, covering just over a quarter of the state's population—Louisville (1999), Lexington (1999), Covington (2003), Vicco (2013), Frankfort (2013), Morehead (2013), Danville (2014), Midway (2015), Paducah (2018), Maysville (2018), and Henderson (2019). 2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the introduction of a Statewide Fairness Law, which has only ever received two informational hearings in the Kentucky General Assembly. This year, nearly a quarter of state legislators co-sponsored the measure.
