LGBTQ equality
"When I first came to Kentucky, my employer did not have domestic partner benefits, and we couldn't pay all our medical bills. As a lesbian/member of the LGBTQ community, I am proud to belong to an organization that fights for equality for all Kentuckians."
Meta Mendel-Reyes
Madison County
Resources
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights
Eastern Kentucky Fairness on Facebook
As KFTC has grown, expanding our vision of equality for all Kentuckians has been a labor of love and a transformative internal process. While many members shared this vision of equality for decades, in 2004 our Steering Committee shared a series of deeply emotional conversations, meetings, and personal reflections and eventually adopted language to our platform to include our LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer or Questioning) communities. Since then (and well before), our local chapters and statewide members have contributed to a growing movement for fairness, safety and celebration of diversity in Kentucky and beyond.
From offering our staff domestic partner benefits to lobbying our elected officials for fairness ordinances and anti-bullying legislation, KFTC members continue to prioritize our vision for a better Kentucky all Kentuckians deserve. As you can read in our blog feed below, our local chapters have recently prioritized LGBTQ equality through Fairness Ordinance organizing in Berea, safe restroom campaign in central Kentucky, creating LGBTQ support networks in Perry County, and much more.
What is a Fairness Ordinance: A Fairness Ordinance would prohibit discrimination in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity. We believe that all Kentuckians have a right to live without fear of unjust discrimination, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. As written, Kentucky law does not guarantee this right, and must be changed. We support a statewide Fairness law and also Fairness ordinances at a local level until a statewide law is establish.
Fairness Moving Forward
Kentuckians continue to come together to fight for a more just future for all of us.
‘Codifying hate and fear.’ Why are KY legislators targeting transgender kids?
the General Assembly is considering an entire “Slate of Hate,” against gay and transgender kids, including a bathroom bill and a bill to punish transgender athletes.
As doctors, we’re distressed by KY bills that threaten the lives of transgender children
As health professionals who provide care for transgender and gender diverse patients, we have great concern, and in fact outright distress, over two bills that have been introduced into the Kentucky legislative session.
Trans Awareness Week and Trans Day of Remembrance
Every year, during the week leading up to the Trans Day of Remembrance, people come together to particpate in Trans Awareness Week. This week is dedicated to raising the visibility of transgender people, and to talk about issues that members of the community often face. From homelessness, to poverty, discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation, and even to violence, trans and gender nonconforming people are forced to live lives where systems of injustice overlap. The week is set aside from November 13 to November 19.
Reflections on the Georgetown Fairness victory
Georgetown passed a fairness ordinance on September 9, becoming the 13th Kentucky city to do so. Since writing this, Versailles became the next city to pass a fairness ordinance, and Highland Heights has had its first reading, with a second reading is scheduled for the 15th.
I am a retired public school teacher, an adjunct professor at Georgetown College, a mother of five children (two of whom are gay), and a grandmother to seven. My husband, a local pediatrician, and I both spoke in favor of the ordinance.
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