Unanimous Vote Tonight Makes Fort Thomas 17th KY City with LGBTQ Fairness Ordinance

(Fort Thomas, KY n- January 7, 2020) With a unanimous vote of 5-0 by the city council tonight, the Campbell County town of Fort Thomas, population 16,263, became the seventeenth city in the Commonwealth and fifth in Northern Kentucky to approve a Fairness Ordinance prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

"This is a proud moment for our city," shared Fort Thomas City Councilperson Ken Bowman, who introduced the measure. "What's right is right. We may have been a little slow, but we go there."

The seventeen Kentucky cities with local Fairness Ordinances cover more than a quarter of the state's population-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), and Fort Thomas (2020).

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the introduction of a Statewide Fairness Law, which has only received two informational hearings in the Kentucky General Assembly, and never a vote. Last year, nearly a quarter of state lawmakers co-sponsored the measure in the Senate and House. A Statewide Fairness Rally in support of LGBTQ rights will be held Wednesday, February 19 at 1:30 p.m. ET in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda.

Founded in 1991, the Fairness Campaign is Kentucky's broad-based community effort dedicated to equal rights for lesbian gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Its primary goal is comprehensive civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and to dismantle systemic racism.