Judge backs print shop’s refusal of gay pride work
Kentycky judge overturns ruling by rights commission
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A judge in Lexington, Kentucky, on Monday ruled in favor of a shop that refused to print gay pride festival T-shirts.
The ruling by Fayette County Circuit Judge James Ishmael overturned a decision by the city’s Human Rights Commission. The commission had ruled in 2014 that the print shop, Hands On Originals, violated a city law that bans discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation. The shop says it has refused several jobs because of its Christian beliefs.
Ishmael said the Human Rights Commission went beyond its statutory authority in siding with the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, a gay rights advocacy organization.
The judge’s ruling said that the shop’s refusal to print GLSO’s pride festival shirts in 2012 was based not on the sexual orientation of its members but on “the message advocating sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman.”
Both the GLSO and the Human Rights Commission said they are considering an appeal of the ruling.
The shirts were intended for the 2012 Lexington Pride Festival, an annual event promoting gay rights. The group later found another printer to produce the shirts, according to the ruling.