Members of Bowling Green’s LGBT community and their supporters will be anxiously watching when the Bowling Green City Commission meets Tuesday. After years of effort, a fairness ordinance will be on the agenda. Bowling Green is the largest Kentucky city without a law protecting individuals from discrimination based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. Patti Minter is a member of the local fairness coalition.
“Communities are only as good as the protection they offer, and this community is too good not to offer equal rights to all of its people.” Minter said.
The ordinance would ban discrimination against LGBT members in areas like housing, employment, and public accommodations. Dr.Grayson Hunt is a professor at Western Kentucky University who is transgender. He said discrimination is occurring in Bowling Green.
“A couple of gender non-conforming students of mine were recently turned away from a barber shop. The barber said he was only going to cut “men’s” hair, and the students were kicked out for that reason, which is certainly gender discrimination, if not also on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.” Hunt said.
Commissioner Slim Nash is introducing the measure, and is the only member of the commission who has publicly expressed support for the fairness ordinance. While he doesn’t expect the measure to pass, he said the issue will not go away.
