Lots of well-publicized energy has been put into Fairness organizing and strategizing in eastern Kentucky communities over the last year or more. Bereans for Fairness has had an exponentially growing wave of organizing efforts for a city ordinance in support of fairness and human rights, including several strong shows of local and statewide support at city council meetings and rallies.  Last summer, there was great public outcry after two men were ejected from the Hazard Pavilion pool for alleged public displays of affection.  The city of Hazard released an apology statement after dozens of people from around the region and the state rallied against the inappropriate action.  

While the media excitement around these events lasted a short time, east Kentuckians from Berea to Whitesburg continue to build momentum toward their long-term, community visions of fairness and equality in our state and beyond.  Around a dozen or so people from Perry and surrounding counties met at Hazard Community and Technical College over several months following the summer's events, forming what Perry County member Ivy Brashear called "a group dedicated to the discussion and implementation of making equality in the mountains extend to all people."  Ivy also said the group "hopes to document anecdotal evidence that shows the need for fairness ordinances to be established throughout the region, create a local support network for LGBT folks and their allies, identify local resources for LGBT folks and their allies, and identify business, community, spiritual and educational leaders with which our group may be able to partner."  East Kentucky Fairness is accessible through Facebook, at eastkyfairness@gmail.com and P.O. Box 18, Mayking, KY 41837.

Folks who were a part of these meetings currently support fairness around the region in a number of ways. Ada Smith, SONG (Southerners On New Ground) board member and Letcher Chapter Steering Committee alternate, and Cleveland Smith, STAY steering committee member and the Perry County KFTC Chapter's Steering Committee representative have become more involved with Reach Out in Letcher County, "created (a few years ago) for the support of young Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning men and women in southeastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia."  Jenny Williams, a professor at HCTC, has joined with students to form the new HCTC Diversity Club "for LBGTQ students and the people who love them," according to Jenny. 

The Diversity Club has hosted well-attended meetings and events on campus over the last few months and continue to host student activities in support of fairness.  Just last week the Diversity Club grilled pizza in a student lounge on campus and fed 40 or more people home-made, grilled fresh pizza with a variety of gourmet toppings.  Here, they did outreach and planned for the upcoming Statewide Fairness Rally & Lobby Day, hosted by the Fairness Campaign in Frankfort on Wednesday, February 22.  KFTC members and allies from around the state, along with several from HCTC and eastern Kentucky, plan to be there in support of a Statewide Anti-Discrimination Fairness Law, introduced in both the Senate (SB 69) and the House (HB 188), as well as an Anti-Bulling Law (HB 336).  

Premiering in Berea on the night of the Rally & Lobby Day, Wednesday, Feb. 22, is Appalachian author Silas House's new play "This Is My Heart For You."  Ethan Hamblin, Berea student from Perry County who also helped to form East Kentucky Fairness, was excited to learn that "the play is based on the Hazard Pavillion incident. This play is about equal love and human rights. It will focus on a group based on East Kentucky Fairness!"

"Last summer there were several incidents about equality – alleged hate crimes, discrimination, etc. – in the area, and the theme just presented itself,” said Silas. Call the Berea College Box Office for tickets and more info at 859-985-3300. 

The Fairness Coalition even traveled to eastern Kentucky last month during the filming of their statewide fairness commercial to include the faces and voices of several members from Perry and Letcher counties, including Jenny Williams, Heather Bates, and Josephine Richardson, as well as others in the region.  Look for familiar faces in the commercial below and contact Tanya@kftc.org for information on a carpool out of eastern Kentucky to the Fairness Rally and Lobby Day in Frankfort,  next Wednesday, February 22. 

As election season approaches, the Madison County KFTC is partnering with student groups from Berea College to register people from around the College and the community to vote. With the assistance of Berea College’s Bereans For Appalachia and the College’s Student Government Association, the Madison County chapter was at Berea College’s dining hall and Mountain Day festival to encourage people to register to vote in the upcoming election. This registration drive is a final attempt to get people to register to vote before the October 11^th deadline. The Madison County chapter also plans to hold a candidates’ forum on major issues at Berea College on October 26^th, with the assistance of the Harvey Milk Society student group, where Berea City Council candidates will voice their views on major issues in Berea

As voters go to the polls in Berea this November, one of these major issues will be the fairness ordinance in Berea. The candidate elected to the Berea City Council will likely have to vote on a fairness ordinance, so a candidates’ position on the fairness issue will be an important factor as voters choose who to vote for. A fairness ordinance would make it illegal for businesses to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation, and has been a major initiative in Berea for the past several months. The Fairness Coalition, which includes the Madison County KFTC, has continued to fight for a fairness ordinance in Berea. Supporters of a fairness ordinance made a showing at a Berea City Council meeting, where students from the college and members of the Fairness Coalition spoke in support of a fairness ordinance, urging the City Council to vote in favor of the law.

 Two of students testified about the assault they suffered while they walked around Berea (for the story in the Lexington Herald-Leader, please click here. 

 People in a passing car shouted expletives and slurs at the students due to the students’ perceived sexual orientation, before throwing a bottle of water at the two. The students encouraged the City Council to take a stand against this behavior by passing a fairness ordinance.  

 The Central Kentucky chapter's fairness work team has been very busy over the last couple of weeks surveying restrooms and getting petitions signed. Last Saturday three teams of four walked around downtown Lexington w/ a checklist and surveyed restrooms in the Carnegie Center, the Living Arts and Science Center, the Main Library, Third Street Stuff, Doodles, Giacommos Deli, The Marathon station on MLK and 3rd St, Alfalfa restaurant, Jonathon's at Gratz Park and the Lexington History museum.

Members used a checklist developed by a student group at UC Santa Barbara called P.I.S.S.A.R (People In Search of Safe and Accessible Restrooms) to conduct the survey. The checklists are broken down into three sections. The first addresses access for people with disabilities. This requires the person doing the surveying to measure things like the width of the bathroom door, the distance from the grab bar to the floor and height of the sink. The second section of the checklist is regarding transgender and gender variant folks and asks questions like "Is the restroom in a safe and well lit area?" and "Are the doors marked with gender specific signs or gender neutral ones?" The last section of the checklists pertains to childcare and aims to find out if there are changing tables in the restroom (regardless of whether they're male or female restrooms).

The teams also carried with them petitions they'd designed and asked folks they met to support their efforts, which resulted in several really great conversations. You can view the petition by clicking here: Safe restroom petition

The rain this Saturday made is so we couldn't go out and do more surveys but we were able to have a really good meeting where we talked about how this campaign fits into KFTC's overall goals to challenge and change unjust institutions, overcome discrimination, help people to participate and to communicate a message of what is possible.

For more information about this campaign you can download our brochure: Safe restroom trifold brochure or go to www.kftc.org/safe

WMMT, Whitesburg's Mountain Community Radio Station in Letcher County, offers ordinary citizens training and access to the tools they need to cover news that is important to them through the Community Correspondents Corps.   Recently, Letcher County member Elizabeth Sanders teamed up with the Corps to report on Kentucky's Senate Bill 6.   

The piece she created includes several interviews with KFTC members and rally attendees at the recent Immigration rally in Frankfort, as well as clips from the SB 6 hearing.  Her great piece aired on WMMT's most recent Mountains News and World Report and can be heard at WMMT's website here.  Its well worth checking out and sharing! And keep checking out the Corps website for more great citizen news coverage! 

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act, now House BIll 239, was filed earlier this week by Representative Mary Lou Marzian. The Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (of which KFTC is a founding member) and KFTC are supporting this bill as the primary means to move Kentucky's economy and energy forward.

The bill contains measures that would create jobs, save Kentucky's families, farms and businesses money and improve public health. Policy mechanisms in the bill include a Renewable and Efficiency Portfolio Standards and Feed In Tariffs.

Please read more about the bill's measures here.

Or, download this one-page handout about the bill.

Take these actions to support clean energy:

1. Call your representative or senator today to tell them you support clean energy and this bill. Tell them why you care about clean energy and how you think this bill will affect you. 1-800-372-7181
2. Join the Clean Energy Opportunity Act (HB 239) Webinar  - February 8th at 7 p.m.
   Take a close look at the mechanics of the clean energy bill that will be introduced this legislative session. This webinar is open to media. Link and call-in information will be provided to registrants prior to the date. Email nancy@kysea.org to participate.
   
3. Attend the 
Clean Energy Lobby Day - February 10th, all day at the Capitol in Frankfort Join KySEA for a full day of meetings with legislators aimed at having good conversations about the benefits of clean energy for Kentuckians and about the specifics of the Clean Energy Bill of 2011. The group will meet in room 111 of the Capitol Annex between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Email nancy@kysea.org to sign up.

Over 100 people from around Kentucky gathered in Louisville yesterday afternoon to plan active opposition to Senate Bill 6, Sen. David Williams’ anti-immigrant bill.

Faith-based, labor, immigrant, social service, social justice, legal, human rights and many other organizations were represented, including representatives from the Jefferson, Central Kentucky, Northern Kentucky, and Scott County KFTC Chapters. They were all united in their determination to defeat the legislation, which was rushed through the Kentucky Senate this week.

The large turnout “speaks to the breadth of opposition to this legislation,” said immigration lawyer Ron Russell. “This room is a powerful room,” added Carla Wallace.

SB 6 is modeled after parts of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law that has sparked a national controversy, widespread condemnation and a boycott of Arizona by many groups. Parts of that law were found unconstitutional.

The economic impact such a law would have for Kentucky tourism and other business, increased prison and law enforcement costs, and defending the law in court were among the reasons many said the law would be bad for Kentucky. But it was mostly for anti-racist and human rights reasons that folks want to see the legislation defeated.

SB 6 will go to the Kentucky House, which reconvenes on February 1. Rep. Reginald Meeks said he expected the bill to be assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.

He also noted the political motivations behind the Senate passage of the bill: “All of these bills that people find offensive have a political backdrop,” said Rep. Meeks. “With David Williams running for governor, he is going to support all of these bills because they draw out his base.”

Those gathered Saturday wanted to do more than just defeat SB 6.  Scott County KFTC member Homer White said he hoped people would “use this moment to help create a different climate in the state … to make Kentuckians more welcoming and support comprehensive immigration reform.”

But the short-term goal is the defeat of SB 6. So folks spent some time in smaller groups to talk about reaching out to more allies, and developing education materials. Plans were made for soliciting the support of mayors and police chiefs in various cities and towns because of their understanding of the impacts such a law would have.

Background Information

This Courier-Journal article includes Senators' votes on the bill in committee and on Senate floor, and this earlier Courier-Journal article describes SB 6, most succinctly in the right-hand box. The content below is a very slightly edited version of the Courier's description of the bill:

• Requires police to attempt to determine a person’s immigration status if a “reasonable suspicion” exists that they are an undocumented immigrant.
  
• Allows someone to be arrested without a warrant if an officer has probable cause to believe he or she has committed an offense that would lead to deportation.
  
• Bans local communities from enacting laws that would limit enforcement of federal immigration laws.
  
• Permits government agencies — such as those that those that provide public benefits or issue licenses — to exchange information related to an individual’s immigration status.
  
• Makes smuggling undocumented immigrants into the state for money a felony.
  
• Applies trespassing law to undocumented immigrants on public or private land.
  
• Creates misdemeanor offense of “assisting an illegal alien” for anyone who helps transport such individuals into the state, disregards their presence, conceals or harbors them or encourages them to come to the state.
  
• Requires an arresting officer to seize any vehicle used to transport undocumented immigrants.

Action and Next Steps

Please take a moment to call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 and leave a message for "House Leadership" and the "House Judiciary Committee."  If your state representative happens to be on the House Judiciary Committee, it would be very useful for you to contact them more directly too. 

- January 14th at 9am. There will be a meeting in Lexington at Common Grounds to plan the Fayette/Lexington strategy to meet with local legislators, city officials, etc.

- January 22nd at 2pm. Another large coalition meeting at the Americana Community Center for further planning.

- January 29th at 3pm. Led by Tony Aha this will be an information meeting for the Latino community. Held at the Beechmont Presbyterian church in Louisville.

- February 8th.  Lobby Day in Frankfort starting at 9am with a possible rally at 12:45pm.  More information to come. 

The fairness work team, a central Kentucky KFTC committee, met last week to continue discussing their safe restroom campaign. The committee designed a petition to take around the community to gain support for the campaign and they also fine tuned some handouts and talking points to use when talking to folks about the issue.

These are the campaign goals:

1. Encourage businesses with single stall restrooms to remove the gender specific signs from the doors and replace them with gender neutral ones.

2. Encourage Lexington businesses to provide child care station in the restroom, and not just in the women's room.

3. Encourage a community-wide discussion about accessibility issues.

4. Publicize the location of gender neutral, family friendly and accessible restrooms through out the city.

5. Thank businesses who already offer safe, accessible and family friendly restrooms to their customers.

6. Build our power through grassroots organizing.

 If you'd like to be a part of the central Kentucky fairness work team, than you can either come to their next meeting on Saturday, December 4th at 2pm at the Lexington Pride center (the GLSO), or you can contact the central Kentucky organizer at ondine@kftc.org

Going to the restroom isn't something that we really talk about, but that's beginning to change. 

People around the country are coming together to discuss the problem of public restrooms not being safe and welcoming to folks who are differently abled, or people who don't conform to traditional gender stereotypes. "Some folks may not think this is a terribly important issue but I beg to differ." explained KFTC member Jackson Cofer. "Many of us are afraid we will be harassed or assaulted for being in the "wrong" bathroom."

Unfortunately that does happen. On June 22, at 1:40 p.m., Lance Reyna, a transgender man, was attacked at knifepoint on the campus of Houston Community College. Reyna was attacked in a restroom by a male who said "Hey, queer!" in a falsetto voice and put a knife to his throat. The attacker then told Reyna to hand over his valuables and began beating Reyna. Once Reyna was on the ground, the attacker kicked him in the head. (Read more about this incident here).

A transgendered high school student in Vermont experienced so much harassment and threatening in the bathroom it would reduce him to tears. "“It was the fear and apprehension of possibly having to use the bathroom during the school day that caused me the most harm,” he said. “By eighth grade I had almost made a game out of waiting for the end of the day so I could use the bathroom at my own home," stated 16 year old Kyle Giard-Chase. (more here).

Members of the central Kentucky Chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth have decided to address this concern in Lexington by building a campaign that will push local businesses to make their restrooms more inclusive to everyone.

They had their first public meeting this past Saturday at 3pm at the Lexington pride center. 16 people came out to develop a strategy for this campaign.

The committee has formed into three subgroups; policy, education and outreach. The subgroups will spend the next two weeks coming up with a list of Lexington businesses to approach, crafting a petition and thinking of ways to educate the community about the importance of this issue.

Their next meeting is on Saturday November 20th at 2pm at the Pride center at 389 Waller Avenue #100, Lexington KY 40504.

For more information on this issue check out the following resources:

http://safe2pee.org/new/
(An interactive list of gender neutral and unisex restrooms in North America)

http://web.archive.org/web/20051017054421/http://www.pissr.org/
(P.I.S.S.R - people in search of safe restrooms)

http://noclexington.com/?p=2091(Article on KFTC's safe restroom campaign in Lexington based independent news paper North of Center)

http://srlp.org/films/toilettraining
(A documentary on the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms.)

http://transgenderlawcenter.org/cms/content/safe-bathroom-access-campaign-sbac
(The Transgender law center's safe bathroom access campaign)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=share&gid=258585557718
(Campaign for gender neutral bathrooms at DePaul)

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/05/D_C__Starbucks_Stores_Move_Toward_Gender-Neutral_Restrooms/
(Article on how DC Starbucks adopt gender neutral restrooms)

The University of Kentucky's Cat's Den was at a capacity crowd of two hundred tonight for Dr. Bernadette Barton's lecture "Toxic Closet: Being Gay in the Bible Belt." Dr. Barton, a UK graduate and member of the Morehead State University faculty, spoke about gay identities and social and cultural backlash against homosexuals.

The lecture focused on personal accounts of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) people from the Bible Belt, an area that is about one quarter of the landmass of the United States from the south east to the mid west. These people struggle daily with "coming out" which contrary to common perception is an ongoing process, Dr. Barton described for herself and LGBT people.

Barton juxtaposed homophobic and anti-gay messages with the often deeply personal accounts of the people she interviewed in her research. She illustrated the familial and social pressures created by fundamentalist communities and their effects on LGBT individuals, showing that, in the end, tolerance and acceptance benefits not only them, but their families, friends and communities.

Barton became interested in researching this topic in 2004 after the campaign for, and passage of Kentucky's marriage amendment. As a Kentuckian and lesbian, she was curious about the larger social implications of the anti-gay messages that were commonplace in the weeks leading up to the election.

The event, sponsored by UK KFTC along with UK's Outsource, UK Student Government, The Cats Den, UK College Democrats and Fayette county Young Democrats, successfully brought two hundred people out on a cold, rainy Monday night.

We hope to be able to add a video of the presentation to our blog in the coming days.

Also, there will be another presentation on Wednesday evening on Murray State University's campus at 7 p.m. in Room 208 of Faculty Hall.

                                    - By KFTC Members Danny Cotton and Jordan Panning

   This afternoon, there was a nationwide protest against the recent vote on Proposition 8 in California, organized by “Join the Impact.”  People came together in 300 cities from all 50 states (as well as several countries) to show solidarity and support for GLBT rights and this nationwide effort included protests in Louisville, Berea, and Lexington.

   I joined about 150 people of all ages and orientations that gathered in front of the government building in Lexington, braving the cold, wind, and rain.

   Lots of drivers that passed the crowd honked in approval, and many people even rolled down their windows to shout out support and wave. It was really great to see such a large turn out despite the nasty weather, and it warmed my heart every time someone honked and gave us a big “thumbs up!”

   After about an hour, we marched down to Phoenix park, heard a few speeches from some folks, including new 3rd District Council member and KFTC member Diane Lawless, and then went home to get warm.

   Thanks to Chris Garris for taking these pictures.

   To read about the actions other cities took across the nation on this issue today, see stories Here and Here.

                                                  - Caitlin Powell