Gay rights expansion debated, pushed
Effort to extend Louisville city ordinance into Jefferson County and state
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, July, 1999

After a seven-year effort that ultimately wore down the Louisville Board of Aldermen, gay-rights activists succeeded in getting an ordinance passed in late January that bans job discrimination based on sexual orientation.Now they are attempting to extend their victory over all who live in Jefferson County and are currently planning to include the whole state as well.

The final decision for Jefferson County, anticipated in August, will be made by the Fiscal Court comprised of Rebecca Jackson, the County Judge Executive, and the three Commissioners, Darryl Owens, Russ Maple and Joe Corradino.Owens and Maple are cosponsoring the special-rights measure while Jackson has said she opposes it.

The focus, then, is on the swing vote, Commissioner Joe Corradino who is undecided.In an effort to stimulate debate and communication, hescheduled six citizen public hearings.

Though the decision is the county’s to decide, phone calls from around the state may help clarify the magnitude of the final decision.

With the Louisville ordinance in the bag, the next step in the homosexual agenda is to secure the same special rights over a broader realm — Jefferson County.From there, the current plan is to springboard the Louisville decision (and future Jefferson County decision) into a statewide effort and broaden it to include housing and gay sensitivity education through the public school system.In addition, activists are pushing an ordinance in Lexington.

State Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, has already verbally proposed legislation that will expand the Louisville ordinance fromemployment, but also housing and public accommodations.In addition, she plans to propose legislation that will “deal with diversity and intolerance” by requiring the Department of Education to have “certified and classified personnel who reflect the diversity of society in general.”

Where will that take us as a state?Some ideas of where can be gleaned from gay efforts in California and Canada.

While gays contend that there is no such thing as a homosexual agenda, critics point out incidents that prove otherwise. California is a prime example.According to Randy Thomasson, director of the Campaign for California Families, the homosexual agenda is pervasive.During the 1999 California General Assembly, 10 different bills have been proposed to either elevate homosexuality or grant homosexuals special rights statewide.Such efforts are not new. Two years ago, 18 similar pro-gay bills were proposed in the state legislature with all but one being defeated in either the State House or Senate.The single bill to survive was vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson.However, California’s new governor, Gray Davis, has indicated he would sign pro-homosexual legislation into law.

One of the most controversial bills being considered by the legislature would mandate homosexual/bisexual curriculum and promotion of gay marriage in the K-12 public school classroom.It also includes a provision that would pursue quotas for homosexual instructors.Another bill would“award parental rights to non-parents, especially in the cases of lesbian relationships.”Yet another would official minority status based on sexual orientation.This is similar to the bill passed in Louisville. 

Each of the pro-homosexual bills are systematically progressing out of their respective committees.According to Thomasson, it is likely that in the shifting political sands of California, some, if not all, of the bills may actually pass into law—unless, he says, “people get involved.”People who care about their children “need to pray, give time and give money to this cause,” said Thomasson. “And if they don’t do two out of the three, then they’re not being responsible citizens.”

Whatlooks alarming in the Golden State looks even bleaker for our neighbors to the north. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has put the clamps on any speech that negatively portrays homosexuals and their movement.The CBSC — a private regulatory agency for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters — ruled last year that a Focus on the Family (FOF) program entitled “Homosexuality: Fact and Fiction” (originally aired in 1997) falsely portrayed the “gay” movement as “malevolent insidious and conspiratorial.”

Ron Cohen, chairman of the CBSC, called the Focus program “homophobic” and demanded the Alberta radio station that originally aired the program to announce the judgment against it over prime time. Interestingly, the CBSC accused Focus of “abusively discriminatory comment on the basis of sexual orientation” — the same language that is working its way into law throughout the United States.The station had 30 days to air the judgment or it faced possible revocation of its license.So much for free speech in Canada.

Darrel Reid, president of FOF Canada, objected to the censorship.In a letter he stated, “Freedom of religious expression includes the freedom to explain not only the basic tenets of a faith, but the ramifications of those tenets for society. Anything less constitutes a restriction so severe as to render the concept of freedom of expression meaningless.”

Next time someone says that sexual orientation legislation is necessary, pro-family advocates will tell them only if they’re in favor of censorship.Just ask Canada.

Kentucky has some major decisions before her.The concern for Kentucky is that California and Canada may be just the beginning in light of this new effort towards the school system.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst