BTL Staff
BEREA, KY. – The city of Berea has scheduled two meetings in September to discuss a proposed city law that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The proposal is modeled after several other ordinances that have passed around the state and would outlaw discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
The city council will review the measure on Sept. 2 and will hold a public forum on Sept. 16. The ordinance could even be up for a second reading as early as Oct. 2.
Four complaints of discrimination were reported to the Berea Human Rights Commission in July but have not been investigated because the city lacks a local ordinance giving the issue any legal authority.
Kentucky has passed a string of nondiscrimination ordnances across the state in the past two years. Most recently in June, Danville became the seventh city in the state to approve protections for LGBT.
A statewide fairness law garnered a number of co-sponsors in this year's session of the General Assembly but did not get scheduled for a vote. A statewide poll by the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign found that 83 percent of Kentuckians support anti-discrimination protections.
