Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly stood in support of the LGBTQ community Thursday as he volunteered to speak on a panel of supporters at Thursday night’s Owensboro Fairness Coalition meeting.
Mattingly spoke alongside Human Relations Commission Board Member Deanna Smith, former Henderson Mayor Joan Hoffman and nondiscrimination ordinance supporter and former educator Phyllis Ward. Mattingly spoke to a crowd of more than 200 people at Brescia University about how to best approach the topic of the nondiscrimination ordinance with those in the community who don’t support it — including the County’s three commissioners who’ve said publicly that they won’t vote for it.
“Do be nice — understand that everyone does have an opinion and some are bigger than others,” he said. “But you gotta get smart, so that when someone asks you a question, you can tell them the truth.”
Mattingly said rumors had been spreading across town regarding his lack of support for the ordinance, though he put those rumors to rest Thursday evening as he expressed his perspective from moral, logical and even religious standpoints.
“Take the high road,” he told the crowd. “You’d think that an old dude [like me] wouldn’t want to change. I could’ve finished my term by fixing roads [and things of that nature], but I think that’s a chicken’s way out.”
Mattingly also addressed the separation of church and state, saying the nondiscrimination ordinance should never be supported or opposed based on the religious beliefs of those in office.
“As a Catholic, I can’t make any law based on my faith,” he said. “Our founding fathers said the government shall not impose their religion upon [the making of laws]. As a nation of laws, I cannot bring my religion to bear when I’m passing laws for the good of the community. You don’t have the right to do that in public commerce.”
On the topic of religion, Mattingly said he didn’t believe Jesus had ever sent a sinner away.
“He accepted people as people are,” he said. “As the oldest of 12 kids, we knew discrimination. We were dirt poor. The neighbors wouldn’t allow us to play with their kids. I think, really, when the boomers are gone, you’re going to see a great coming together of this community.”
On the topic of religious coercion and the fear opponents have of “burdensome and frivolous lawsuits,” Mattingly said he wasn’t buying it.
“There are 350 million people and 10 million businesses and all they can come up with are five lawsuits,” he said. “They do that to scare you. It’s up to you to tell them their fears are unfounded. The complicit argument — ‘Well, if I rent to a gay person, I become complicit in their sin.’ If you rent to an unmarried couple, if you rent to a glutton, if you rent to a drunkard, are you becoming complicit in their sin?”
When asked how the minds of three County commissioners could be changed, Mattingly said it was up to those in support of the nondiscrimination ordinance to fight the good fight, just like women did when fighting for the right to vote, and like blacks did during the Civil Rights movement.
“We’re talking about basic civil rights, about not making laws based on religion,” he said. “We need to get rid of those biases we’re taught. I am talking about natural laws. I firmly believe we are born the way we are born. If we don’t bring our thinking into the 21st century, we’re going to have a problem because we’re going to lose all of our young people and they aren’t going to want to live here. We have to separate religion from civil law.”
Though the HRC had invited many opponents of the nondiscrimination ordinance to their monthly meeting, no one in opposition showed up.
