Discrimination or religious freedom? Bevin weighs in on gay pride t-shirt lawsuit
Frankfort -- Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has submitted a legal brief to the Kentucky Supreme Court in support of a Lexington business that refused to print T-shirts for an LGBT organization because the owner had religious objections to “pride in being gay.”
Hands On Originals was charged with violating Lexington’s fairness ordinance in 2012 when it refused to print T-shirts for Lexington’s Pride Festival. The Kentucky Court of Appeals sided with Hands On Originals last May, ruling that the company’s right to free speech overruled the city’s fairness ordinance, part of which prohibits businesses that are open to the public from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission appealed that ruling and the case is currently in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Bevin’s lawyers filed a brief arguing that requiring Hands On Originals’ owners to print T-shirts “promoting homosexuality” would violate the company’s religious freedom and its freedom of conscience guaranteed in the Kentucky Constitution.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article199721899.html