LGBT People Protected Again in Kentucky Government

Hats off to Governor Beshear! Finally, some good news!

Kentucky Equality Federation started an online petition for this a few weeks ago (though we had no idea the Governor's Office was considering it already). This will give the Family Foundation something else to blog about!

This was pulled from the Commonwealth News Center:

FRANKFORT, KY – Governor Steve Beshear today signed an executive order restoring equal opportunity employment to all employees and prospective employees. Under the order, no one can be hired or fired based on race, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, ancestry, age, disability, or veteran status.

“A person should be hired or dismissed on the basis of whether they can do the job,” said Gov. Beshear. “Experience, qualifications, talent and performance are what matter.”

In 2003, Gov. Paul Patton issued an identical executive order and said he was a strong supporter of fair and equal treatment of employees. He noted that qualifications and conduct in the workplace should be the only factors by which an employee is judged.

However, in 2006 Gov. Ernie Fletcher stripped those job protections (story) from a certain segment of the state employee population - notably Kentuckians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. The suggestion was that such protection was either unnecessary, legally expensive or the equivalent of “special treatment.” As a result, a gay person could be fired simply for being gay.

The executive order signed today by Gov. Beshear restores equal treatment, diversity and inclusiveness to government.

This is GREAT! I'm sure former Governor Fletcher isn't very happy with this; he revoked the previous order attempting to appeal to his conservative right-wing to remain in office.

Below is the actual text of the signed order:


You can view a complete copy of the executive order by visiting the Executive Journal of the Kentucky Secretary of State's website, or click here.