Council asked to reconsider adding gay rights language to human rights ordinance

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015, 11 p.m. — The Bardstown City Council’s working session Tuesday included a request to revisit adding Fairness Ordinance language to the city’s human rights ordinance.

Mike Yadon asks the Bardstown City Council to revisit updates to its human rights ordinance that will add Fairness Ordinance language to extend human rights protection to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Mike Yadon spoke the council about its decision not to take up Fairness Ordinance language proposed in March by the joint human rights commission.

Yadon is a member of the human rights commission, but he told the council he wasn’t there to speak on the commission’s behalf.

He was there to address some of the misinformation that surfaced when the council considered the Fairness Ordinance language in March.

The ordinance “sought to dismantle LGBT oppression and build an inclusive community,” Yadon told the council. “The opposition spoke to the contrary so if to establish the belief that Bardstown be seen as anything as inclusive.”

As a result of the publicity generated by the failure of the Fairness Ordinance language, Yadon said the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups and their supporters are currently boycotting Bardstown tourism.

“How can a bourbon tourism-based economy town opt to exclude a percentage of the population with the largest amount of disposable income and their supporters?”

Yadon warned that Bardstown’s failure to pass Fairness Ordinance language may impact its ability to continue to be the “Bourbon Capital of the World.”

Louisville and Lexington are both ramping up their efforts to attract bourbon tourism dollars, he said, and both are capitalizing on the fact they have approved Fairness Ordinance language to attract members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

“Will Bardstown lose its “bourbon capital” status to favor people who demonize bourbon and the bourbon industry, along with the LGBT community? I certainly hope not.”

Yadon said the community makes money off the local members of the LGBT community who work as artists, business owners and tax-paying property owners, and who also patronize local businesses.

After the city and county governments failed to act on Fairness Ordinance measures, Yadon said members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community now fear for their safety when they come to Bardstown.

“They fear coming where they have no defined human right protections,” Yadon said. “They are afraid someone will interpret that very lack of human rights protection as a free pass to do them harm.”

Yadon noted that the City of Midway is the eighth city in Kentucky to adopt Fairness Ordinance language. Their approval was enacted in the same manner the local human rights commission wanted to adopt the language here — “through the human rights ordinance update without public spectacle.”

Yadon blamed Judge Executive Dean Watts for helping fuel opposition to the Fairness Ordinance language in the human rights update.

After Watts learned of the human rights commission’s plans, Yadon said Watts appointed a person to the commission “who would adamantly oppose any and all equal rights for the LGBT community.”

He noted that the council discussed the measure in March but took no action, and he asked members of the council to reconsider bringing the human rights update back for a vote in the near future.

To not take action could cost the city’s reputation as a tourist destination, he said, especially with the popular Kentucky Bourbon Festival and Arts, Crafts & Antique Fair in the weeks ahead.

“It will only take a single cellphone video of someone being harassed or accosted on the grounds of their real or perceived sexuality to damage the tourist industry in Bardstown, Kentucky for many years to come.”

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