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City officials in Hazard, Ky., have refused to change the anti-gay policy at a public swimming pool that evicted a developmentally disabled gay couple due to their sexual orientation.
A storm of protest had erupted in the small, eastern Kentucky town after a worker at the Hazard Pavilion recreation center cited the Bible as authority that “gay people” weren’t allowed to swim there and forced the two men to leave the property on June 10.
“They left the facility crying,” Jordan Palmer, president of the gay-rights group Kentucky Equality Federation, said June 15. “You don’t treat people that way, especially someone that is developmentally challenged. ... I’m so appalled by that I can’t put it into words.”
After more than 2,000 people signed the federation’s Change.org petition demanding that the city apologize to the couple, the city agreed and began to institute reforms to prevent a similar situation from occurring.
But after the media spotlight from the incident diminished, the city’s position changed. City Attorney Paul R. Collins, who is responsible for changing city rules, reversed his stance, demanding that Palmer produce a Kentucky state law saying the pool could not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Unfortunately, Kentucky’s civil rights code provides more protections for smokers than it does for LGBT people,” Palmer said. “It is perfectly legal to fire someone, or deny someone access to public accommodations, because they are gay or lesbian. However, it is not legal to deny someone access to public accommodations because they smoke.”
Collins subsequently backed away from a commitment to create new rules to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity at the Pavilion in the future. As a result, it will remain legal for public employees in Hazard, Kentucky to continue to deny gay people access to the Pavilion’s public swimming pool if they so choose.
“The Kentucky Equality Federation hopes the city will change their rules to prevent further discrimination,” said Palmer. “Kentucky used to lead the country by enacting the first civil rights law. Now it is lagging severely behind the rest of the country.”
Source: wisconsingazette.com
A storm of protest had erupted in the small, eastern Kentucky town after a worker at the Hazard Pavilion recreation center cited the Bible as authority that “gay people” weren’t allowed to swim there and forced the two men to leave the property on June 10.
“They left the facility crying,” Jordan Palmer, president of the gay-rights group Kentucky Equality Federation, said June 15. “You don’t treat people that way, especially someone that is developmentally challenged. ... I’m so appalled by that I can’t put it into words.”
After more than 2,000 people signed the federation’s Change.org petition demanding that the city apologize to the couple, the city agreed and began to institute reforms to prevent a similar situation from occurring.
But after the media spotlight from the incident diminished, the city’s position changed. City Attorney Paul R. Collins, who is responsible for changing city rules, reversed his stance, demanding that Palmer produce a Kentucky state law saying the pool could not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Unfortunately, Kentucky’s civil rights code provides more protections for smokers than it does for LGBT people,” Palmer said. “It is perfectly legal to fire someone, or deny someone access to public accommodations, because they are gay or lesbian. However, it is not legal to deny someone access to public accommodations because they smoke.”
Collins subsequently backed away from a commitment to create new rules to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity at the Pavilion in the future. As a result, it will remain legal for public employees in Hazard, Kentucky to continue to deny gay people access to the Pavilion’s public swimming pool if they so choose.
“The Kentucky Equality Federation hopes the city will change their rules to prevent further discrimination,” said Palmer. “Kentucky used to lead the country by enacting the first civil rights law. Now it is lagging severely behind the rest of the country.”
Source: wisconsingazette.com