The City of Elsmere is the latest in Northern Kentucky and the twenty-fourth across the state to adopt what is commonly referred to as a fairness ordinance, extending legal protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.
By a vote of 4-1 on Tuesday night, Elsmere became the fourth Kenton County city and tenth in Northern Kentucky to adopt such legislation.
The Fairness Campaign, a Louisville-based organization that advocates for LGBTQ issues, said that with Elsmere’s adoption of the ordinance, 38 percent of Kentucky’s population is now covered by fairness ordinances. An effort to pass statewide legislation has failed for two decades.
Councilwoman Gloria Grubbs was the lone vote against it in Elsmere. Councilman Aaron Moore led the effort in Elsmere, the Fairness Campaign said.
The twenty-four Kentucky municipalities that have approved local Fairness Ordinances include Louisville (1999), Lexington (1999), Covington (2003), Vicco (2013), Frankfort (2013), Morehead (2013), Danville (2014), Midway (2015), Paducah (2018), Maysville (2018), Henderson (2019), Dayton (2019), Georgetown (2019), Versailles (2019), Bellevue (2019), Highland Heights (2019), Fort Thomas (2020), Woodford County (2020), Cold Spring (2020), Newport (2020), Crescent Springs (2021), Augusta (2021), Fort Mitchell (2021), and Elsmere (2022).
Two additional Kentucky cities have partial Fairness Ordinances that extend some LGBTQ discrimination protections, including Ashland (housing protections) and Cynthiana (housing and public accommodations protections).
A fairness ordinance effort failed earlier this year in Union. Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, explained in Union in January that employment protections are now extended to people who are LGBTQ through a U.S. Supreme Court decision, and that the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights will now address housing discrimination, but the gap in the law remains in public accommodations.