By Jack Brammer
NKyTribune reporter
The Elsmere City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to become the 24th community in Kentucky to adopt a fairness ordinance.
Chris Hartman
The ordinance is designed to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
With a population of 9,159, Elsmere joins three other Kenton County cities with fairness ordinances – Covington, Crescent Springs. and Fort Mitchell.
Chris Hartman, with Fairness Campaign, said the Elsmere vote brings the total population covered by fairness ordinances in Kenton County to about 38 percent. About 31 percent of Kentuckians are covered statewide, he said.
Despite sustained support for LGBTQ discrimination protections through local Fairness Ordinances for more than two decades, the Kentucky General Assembly continues to refuse to act on Statewide Fairness Laws, said Hartman.
Kentucky communities 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 other Kentucky cities have partial fairness ordinances that extend some LGBTQ discrimination protections. Ashland has housing protections and Cynthiana has housing and public accommodation protections.
