Founded | 1991 |
---|---|
Type | 501(c)(4) |
61-1230384 | |
Location | |
Area served | Kentucky |
Key people | Chris Hartman, director |
Website | fairness.org |
The Fairness Campaign is a Louisville, Kentucky-based lobbying and advocacy organization, focusing primarily on preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Fairness Campaign is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) organization. The organization is a member of the Equality Federation. [1]
In 1981, Sam Dorr, a branch manager at Louisville's First National Bank, was fired from his job because he was gay. The incident, and Dorr's subsequent lawsuit, led many of Louisville's homosexual men and women to form Gays and Lesbians United for Equality (GLUE) to educate the public and raise awareness for gay rights issues. GLUE's focus on education and awareness left many in Louisville's gay community calling for a more overtly political organization to advance their interests. [2]
In 1983, a small grassroots group was formed, the Greater Louisville Human Rights Coalition (GLHRC). The GLHRC filled the political void of GLUE, and began their efforts by pressuring Louisville officials to address discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations. [3] [4] Those efforts led to Louisville's first-ever gay rights march, the March for Justice, in which about 300 people marched to the steps of the Jefferson County courthouse in June 1987. [5]
Public attention returned to discrimination issues in 1990, when a highly publicized hate crime incident led to the introduction, before the Louisville Board of Aldermen, of a local Hate Crimes Ordinance. The anti-hate crimes ordinance covered race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. [6] When a final version passed the Board of Aldermen in November 1991, it became the first piece of legislation in Kentucky to provide protection on the basis of sexual orientation. [7]
The Fairness Campaign emerged in 1991 as an outgrowth of GLUE, GLHRC, the Kentucky Rainbow Coalition, and the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression. The Fairness Campaign was announced at the 1991 March for Justice. An early spokesman for the Fairness Campaign has said that the name "Fairness" was chosen in part for its rhetorical value. "Fairness means stopping discrimination, and all discrimination is wrong." [8]
The Fairness Campaign celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011. U.S. Representative John Yarmuth (KY-3) commemorated the anniversary with a speech from House floor. [9]
The Kentucky Fairness Alliance (KFA) was an American gay rights organization formed in 1993 and based in Kentucky. In 2013, KFA merged its assets under the auspices of the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign. KFA provided public education and advocacy on issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) individuals and families in Kentucky.[ citation needed ]
Because of its role as an advocate for LGBT+ Kentuckians, the history of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance mirrors the legal and legislative issues affecting gay rights in Kentucky since the early 1990s. In 1993 a group of LGBT+ Kentuckians from across the Commonwealth, but principally from Louisville and Central Kentucky, formed the Kentucky Fairness Alliance Education Fund with the expressed purpose of educating the public on LGBT+ issues.[ citation needed ]
The organization's founders included Carla Wallace and Pam McMichael of Louisville; Pam Goldman and Keith Elston of Lexington; Barry Grossheim of Northern Kentucky; the Rev. Ben Guess of Henderson; and other activists from around the state. Many in this group came to the Kentucky Fairness Alliance from their involvement in groups like Louisville's Fairness Campaign and Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Service Organization. The group's formation was in part a response to attempts in the Kentucky General Assembly to recriminalize consensual sodomy after the Kentucky Supreme Court, in Kentucky v. Wasson overturned a statute making consensual oral or anal sex between members of the same sex illegal while allowing these sex acts between members of the opposite sex. [10] [ verification needed ]
The first goal of the Fairness Campaign was securing a civil rights ordinance in Louisville that extended protection from discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The Fairness Campaign and its political action committee, Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights (C-FAIR), persuaded the Board of Aldermen to introduce such an ordinance on November 12, 1991. [11] The proposed ordinance, referred to as the Fairness Amendment, extended broad protections, preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. [12]
While the Fairness Amendment had strong initial public support, opposition from conservative groups, including the Louisville mega-church Southeast Christian, [13] soon mounted. When a key supporter on the Board of Aldermen, Paul Bather, withdrew his support, the ordinance stalled. [14] Despite pressure from the Fairness Campaign and C-FAIR, the ordinance failed again in 1992. A pared-down version, preventing discrimination only in employment, also failed in a 1995 vote. The broad ordinance was voted down again in 1997. [12]
In 1998, a daycare employee named Alicia Pedreira was fired from her job because she was a lesbian. [15] Like the Dorr incident in 1981, this firing drew attention to the issue of workplace discrimination, and directly countered claims by opponents of the ordinance that such discrimination did not occur in Louisville. [16]
In early January 1999, the Fairness Campaign proposed three separate ordinances—one addressing employment discrimination, the second addressing housing discrimination, and the third addressing public accommodations discrimination. [17] The Board of Aldermen took up the employment ordinance first, separate from the other two ordinances and against the backdrop of the Pedreira incident. When Alderman President Steve Magre switched his no-vote after hearing citizen's accounts of workplace discrimination, passage was all but assured. The employment discrimination ordinance passed the Board of Aldermen on January 26, 1999, [18] making it the first piece of legislation to protect people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity to be passed in Kentucky.
When passage of the Louisville ordinance became clearer, the Fairness Campaign pushed for passage of a broader fairness ordinance for Jefferson County, which included not only Louisville, but also a large area surrounding Louisville. The proposed county ordinance covered housing and public accommodations, as well as employment. [11]
The ordinance had the support of two of the three Jefferson County Commissioners, and was opposed by County Judge Executive Rebecca Jackson, who would also cast a vote on the proposed ordinance. [19] The third commissioner, Joe Corradino, ultimately decided to support the ordinance, [20] and it passed on October 12, 1999. [21] Corradino lost his campaign for re-election less than a month later, as conservative voters, angry over his decisive vote, mobilized to oppose him. [22]
The Louisville Metro Government was created when voters approved a merger between the City of Louisville and Jefferson County. The new legislative branch of Louisville Metro, the Metro Council, had a five-year limit to adopt or amend the old ordinances of the two defunct governments. Both fairness ordinances would have therefore expired in 2007 had the Metro Council not acted. [23]
Facing a new opportunity to defeat the ordinances, many of the same opposition forces mobilized to lobby Metro Council members to vote against adoption. The opposition campaign doubled down, producing inflammatory television commercials and sending out provocative and vulgar mass mailings. [24] The Metro Council ultimately voted to adopt a broad fairness ordinance—protecting against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations—in a bipartisan vote of 19–6. [25] Some Council members attributed their votes for the ordinance to the nasty opposition campaign. [26]
Mayor Jerry Abramson signed the ordinance into law on December 10, 2004. [27]
The Fairness Campaign has also had a hand in passing ordinances similar to the one in Louisville in the Kentucky cities of Lexington, Covington, and Henderson. [28] The Henderson ordinance, which passed in 1999, was repealed 18 months later by officials who campaigned on their promise to repeal. [29]
More recently, the Fairness Campaign and the statewide Fairness Coalition worked with officials in the towns of Midway, [30] Danville, [31] Morehead, Frankfort, and the small town of Vicco to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance. Fairness assisted in the drafting and implementation of this measure. [32] In banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity Vicco became the smallest town in Kentucky and the United States to pass such an ordinance. [33]
The Fairness Campaign actively opposed the proposed 2004 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The Fairness Campaign's Fairness Education Fund paid for billboard signage and thousands of postcard mailings to voters. [34] The Fairness Campaign spent $17,000 opposing the amendment. Opposition groups spent almost $523,000 trying to defeat the measure. [35]
The amendment ultimately passed with 75% support. [36] Kentucky was one of eleven states to pass similar measures prohibiting same-sex marriage in 2004 as part of a massive conservative mobilization effort on the issue. [37]
The Fairness Campaign promotes statewide legislation that provides protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. [38] The 2014 Kentucky General Assembly saw a record number of co-sponsors on both the House and Senate versions of the Statewide Fairness legislation—18 co-sponsors in the House, up from the previous record 10 and six co-sponsors in the Senate, up from five. In one of the largest endorsements of the Statewide Fairness legislation to date, Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo (Prestonsburg) signed on to the House bill for the first time in 2014. Weeks later, the Statewide Fairness legislation, led by Representative Mary Lou Marzian (Louisville), received its first-ever hearing in the House Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Chairman John [39] Tilley (Hopkinsville). Though no vote was taken, Chairman Tilley expressed personal support and suggested the committee would take the issue up again.
Fairness Campaign leaders have met opposition to LGBT rights in a number of public debates, most notably on Kentucky Education Television's public affairs program, Kentucky Tonight, hosted by Bill Goodman. Kentucky Tonight held a debate on anti-LGBT adoption legislation in 2009, [40] LGBT marriage in 2012, [41] the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2013, [42] Statewide Fairness legislation [43] and LGBT marriage again in 2014, [44] following federal court rulings striking down LGBT marriage bans in Kentucky.
Kentucky Fairness Alliance held the 1st Annual Gay & Lesbian Film Series Kickoff Gala on May 30, 2008, in Louisville. The Human Rights Campaign was among the many sponsors [45] of the event supporting Kentucky Fairness Alliance.
In August 2011, the Fairness Campaign condemned threatening statements made on Facebook by then-treasurer of C-FAIR, Anthony Casebeer. Casebeer made these statements in response to a paper co-written by lesbian activist Cathy Brennan, which proposed that extension of transgender rights could curtail the rights of women. A posting on Casebeer's Facebook page said that a "nice home run swing to the head with a 38-oz. Louisville Slugger is more in order," and that if the poster "ever saw [Brennan] in my windshield, I'll be wiping blood off my white Buick. But I won't be using the brakes." [46] Casebeer later apologized to Brennan and resigned from his post at C-FAIR. [47]
In March 2012, after a bill supported by the Fairness Campaign to protect students from bullying died in committee, director Chris Hartman confronted a lobbyist for the conservative opposition group in the hallway of the Capitol Annex in Frankfort. A spokesman for the conservative Kentucky Family Foundation alleged that Hartman was harassing the lobbyist and using abusive language. Hartman has said that he asked the lobbyist "What would Jesus do?" and was frustrated when the lobbyist would not respond to his questions. Hartman noted that the incident took place in front of the press and the Capitol police, and that the spokesman from the Family Foundation was the only person to see an issue. [48]
On March 23, 2013, Hartman's car was vandalized with a swastika. Hartman called the police to report that his car had been sideswiped while parked on the street, but when officers responded to the scene they noticed a swastika had been drawn on a Fairness Campaign sticker and that two Obama campaign stickers had also been defaced. Louisville Metro Police investigated the incident as a hate crime. [49]
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1992.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1977.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is legislation proposed in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or, depending on the version of the bill, gender identity, by employers with at least 15 employees.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the Republic of the Philippines have faced many difficulties in their homeland, such as prejudice, violence, abuse, assault, harassment and other forms of anti-LGBT rhetoric. Many LGBT Filipinos are met with mixed attitudes and reactions by their families, friends and others in their communities, as well as professionals, educators, their national public officials, politicians, attorneys and others working for the government and the rest of the general population.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Wyoming may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Wyoming since 1977, and same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in October 2014. Wyoming statutes do not address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBTQ people is illegal under federal law. In addition, the cities of Jackson, Casper, and Laramie have enacted ordinances outlawing discrimination in housing and public accommodations that cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Michigan enjoy the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. Michigan in June 2024 was ranked "the most welcoming U.S. state for LGBT individuals". Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Michigan under the U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage was legalised in accordance with 2015's Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity is unlawful since July 2022, was re-affirmed by the Michigan Supreme Court - under and by a 1976 statewide law, that explicitly bans discrimination "on the basis of sex". The Michigan Civil Rights Commission have also ensured that members of the LGBT community are not discriminated against and are protected in the eyes of the law since 2018 and also legally upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court in 2022. In March 2023, a bill passed the Michigan Legislature by a majority vote - to formally codify both "sexual orientation and gender identity" anti-discrimination protections embedded within Michigan legislation. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bill on March 16, 2023. In 2024, Michigan repealed “the last ban on commercial surrogacy within the US” - for individuals and couples and reformed the parentage laws, that acknowledges same sex couples and their families with children.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of West Virginia face legal challenges not faced by non-LGBT persons. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1976, and same-sex marriage has been recognized since October 2014. West Virginia statutes do not address discrimination on account of sexual orientation or gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBTQ people is illegal.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Minnesota have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ people. Minnesota became the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 1993, protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in the fields of employment, housing, and public accommodations. In 2013, the state legalized same-sex marriage, after a bill allowing such marriages was passed by the Minnesota Legislature and subsequently signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton. This followed a 2012 ballot measure in which voters rejected constitutionally banning same-sex marriage.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Georgia enjoy most of the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. LGBTQ rights in the state have been a recent occurrence, with most improvements occurring from the 2010s onward. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1998, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since 2015, in accordance with Obergefell v. Hodges. In addition, the state's largest city Atlanta, has a vibrant LGBTQ community and holds the biggest Pride parade in the Southeast. The state's hate crime laws, effective since June 26, 2020, explicitly include sexual orientation.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania enjoy most of the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Pennsylvania. Same-sex couples and families headed by same-sex couples are eligible for all of the protections available to opposite-sex married couples. Pennsylvania was the final Mid-Atlantic state without same-sex marriage, indeed lacking any form of same-sex recognition law until its statutory ban was overturned on May 20, 2014.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Arizona may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Arizona, and same-sex couples are able to marry and adopt. Nevertheless, the state provides only limited protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Several cities, including Phoenix and Tucson, have enacted ordinances to protect LGBTQ people from unfair discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the U.S. state of Indiana have been shaped by both state and federal law. These evolved from harsh penalties established early in the state's history to the decriminalization of same-sex activity in 1977 and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2014. Indiana was subject to an April 2017 federal court ruling that discrimination based on sexual orientation is tantamount to discrimination on account of "sex", as defined by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling establishes sexual orientation as a protected characteristic in the workplace, forbidding unfair discrimination, although Indiana state statutes do not include sexual orientation or gender identity among its categories of discrimination.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Nebraska may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Nebraska, and same-sex marriage has been recognized since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. The state prohibits discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County and a subsequent decision of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission. In addition, the state's largest city, Omaha, has enacted protections in public accommodations.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Kentucky still face some legal challenges not experienced by other people. Same-sex sexual activity in Kentucky has been legally permitted since 1992, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy statute for same-sex couples. Same-sex marriage is legal in Kentucky under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The decision, which struck down Kentucky's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriages and all other same-sex marriage bans elsewhere in the country, was handed down on June 26, 2015.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Idaho face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Idaho, and same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since October 2014. State statutes do not address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBTQ people is illegal under federal law. A number of cities and counties provide further protections, namely in housing and public accommodations. A 2019 Public Religion Research Institute opinion poll showed that 71% of Idahoans supported anti-discrimination legislation protecting LGBTQ people, and a 2016 survey by the same pollster found majority support for same-sex marriage.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the U.S. state of Alaska have evolved significantly over the years. Since 1980, same-sex sexual conduct has been allowed, and same-sex couples can marry since October 2014. The state offers few legal protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, leaving LGBTQ people vulnerable to discrimination in housing and public accommodations; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBTQ people is illegal under federal law. In addition, four Alaskan cities, Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan, representing about 46% of the state population, have passed discrimination protections for housing and public accommodations.
LGBT employment discrimination in the United States is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is encompassed by the law's prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sex. Prior to the landmark cases Bostock v. Clayton County and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2020), employment protections for LGBT people were patchwork; several states and localities explicitly prohibit harassment and bias in employment decisions on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, although some only cover public employees. Prior to the Bostock decision, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) interpreted Title VII to cover LGBT employees; the EEOC determined that transgender employees were protected under Title VII in 2012, and extended the protection to encompass sexual orientation in 2015.
Fairness West Virginia is the statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization for the U.S. state of West Virginia. Founded in 2009 by Stephen Skinner, the organization is currently headed by Andrew Schneider and is headquartered in downtown Charleston.