A petition advocating for City and County leaders to propose a fully inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance is making its way through Owensboro and Daviess County. The ordinance would prohibit discrimination based upon sexual preference and gender identity — often referred to as a Fairness Ordinance.
The fairness ordinance protects the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations, similar to protections given to women, African Americans and minorities in past years. The LGBTQ community has never had protections on a federal or statewide level, which is why local ordinances are important to those who advocate for equality and fairness for all.
The Human Relations Commission has teamed up with Owensboro resident Chadwick Benefield to get this petition circulating and bring awareness to Daviess County’s need for a fairness ordinance.
As of Sept. 13, Georgetown became Kentucky’s 13th city to adopt a fairness ordinance. Other cities across the state with fairness ordinances include Louisville (1999), Lexington (1999), Covington (2003), Frankfort (2013), Morehead (2013), Vicco (2013), Danville (2014), Midway (2015), Paducah (2018), Maysville (2018), Henderson (2019) and Dayton (2019).
In contrast to these fairness ordinances, City and County leaders say a countywide fairness ordinance would make more sense to pass than a city-wide one.
“The mayor thinks this should be county-wide, and I agree with him,” said Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly. “Thirteen or 14 cities have passed the ordinance, and no counties. Discrimination doesn’t stop at city limits.”
Mattingly said he supports a local fairness ordinance for Daviess County and Owensboro, though he prefers the term “non-discrimination ordinance” himself.
“Nothing is fair in this world, but a non-discrimination ordinance would be good,” he said. “I’m open to hearing both sides. I’ve never learned anything from people who agree with me. If we’re going to be a 21st century community, perhaps it’s time to bring the community to the 21st century.”
City Commissioner Pamela Smith-Wright said she supports the ordinance, in part, due to her societal experiences as an African American female.
“I have dealt with discrimination all my life,” she said. “Here I am running for mayor and, for me to think it’s OK for any human being to be discriminated against is crazy. If the LGBTQ community thinks an ordinance is needed because things aren’t on a level playing field, I think it needs to be looked into. There’s no harm in us looking into an ordinance that would make things more fair and equal for everyone.”
Smith-Wright agrees with Mattingly that the ordinance should be passed county-wide, and County Commissioner Mike Koger said he agrees County government should be involved, but alongside the City. However, Koger said it’s too soon for him to determine whether he’d vote for an ordinance that he hasn’t seen yet.
“I’d want to read it first — it’s a serious thing,” he said. “I understand the points of those complaining, but I think you have to look at the whole thing before you make a decision. This issue is coming up strong right now, and it’s going to last forever [if it’s passed].”
City Commissioner Jeff Sanford echoed that statement, saying its too early to tell whether he’d vote in favor of the ordinance.
“I’m not opposed to listening to either side of the debate,” he said. “It needs to be fair for everybody. [The Human Relations Commission] is trying to get some traction, but I haven’t had one person say a word to me — not one.”
HRC Executive Director Kaitlin Nonweiler said the online petition and paper petitions that are circulating in the community have been the HRC’s way of making their statement clear to City and County officials.
“This is just to have another piece to show elected officials we have this much support,” Nonweiler said of the ordinance, which has received 1,603 signatures since Friday. “Before our most recent monthly fairness meeting, Chad Benefield and I had been working closely together on this. He agreed we should hand out more letters and begin passing out hard copies.”
Nonweiler said the HRC set a “lofty” goal of 12,500 signatures, but with Benefield’s strong local and online presence — a recent Facebook post of his about being a gay man in Owensboro recently went viral, Nonweiler said — that goal may be within reach.
“Our goal is to have him post this petition on his previous post,” Nonweiler said. “Chad has really encouraged a group of local leaders who are well known in the community, and part of the LGBTQ community, to speak out.”
The amount of support the HRC gains will determine whether this ordinance is ever put to a vote, as previous ordinances have been tabled due to a lack of support, Mattingly said. And there are still those who don’t feel comfortable pushing it through.
“I wouldn’t vote for it myself based on the perception I’ve gotten,” said County Commissioner George Wathen. “One of my biggest concerns — I don’t think you can legislate fairness. If I don’t want to be fair, I’ll figure out a way not be fair.”
Wathen used an example to highlight his concern. He said if he was hypothetically interviewing different candidates for a position, and one who turns out to be from the LGBTQ community is not right for the position, Wathen worries he could be sued as the employer. The same goes for firing an employee who’s part of the LGBTQ community, he said.
“Anytime you pass an ordinance, there’s unintended consequences,” he said. “We’re setting up more opportunities for lawsuits.”
Nonweiler said she doesn’t believe that argument is valid due to past ordinances that protect a slew of other races, genders, social classes and more.
“What about all of the other protected classes?” she asked. “The LGBTQ community only wants the same rights as everybody else. They don’t want to be put in the limelight, and they don’t want the negative attention.”
Mayor Tom Watson said the ordinance would likely be voted on in Daviess County Fiscal Court, followed by a City commission vote. Getting the results the HRC is looking for will likely be difficult, he said.
“They said they’ve got 1,000 signatures — that’s only one percent of the population here,” he said. “You’d have to have three out of four approve it [at Fiscal Court] for it to be passed. Three out of five [at City Commission] is hard enough, but that’s really tough. I don’t want anybody to be discriminated against, but you can’t enforce it that way. Everybody’s for diversity, until it comes to diversity of opinion.”
