In 2019, Bowling Green was on the brink of overhauling the city municipal code by expanding discrimination protection to include “gender identity and sexual orientation.”
As written, Ordinance No. BG2019-12 would have empowered the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission with unprecedented extra judicial authority outside the legal system to investigate complaints, hold hearings, employ attorneys, and sanction committees to carry out its work. This is patently unconstitutional, as extra judicial agencies are prohibited by the Kentucky constitution unless explicitly defined by law.
The proposed ordinance also authorized the Commission to impose fines, including compensation for “humiliation and embarrassment” and the ability to petition the Warren County Circuit Court to issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify. Those who violated Commission orders could be charged with a misdemeanor, and if convicted, fined and/or imprisoned for 30 days.
This proposed law and others like it are often called a “Fairness Ordinance.”
Efforts to bring this unfair ordinance to Bowling Green began in 2017 when City Commissioner Brian “Slim” Nash introduced a motion for its adoption. No other commissioner seconded the motion and the effort failed to move forward.
In 2019, Nash introduced it again. This time, the motion was seconded by current City Commissioner Dana Beasley Brown, but ultimately failed with a 3-2 vote against its adoption.
Nash no longer holds a seat on the City Commission, but this issue is not dead.
Beasely-Brown is up for re-election in November, has voted for ‘unfairness’ in the past and is on record for continuing to support it.
City Commissioner Carlos Bailey, who is also running for another term, writes in a June 2021 post on his social media page, ‘it’s time to make sure fairness laws pass on the state and local level and I will support laws that increase equity, fairness, and justice for ALL people!”
Mayoral Candidate Patti Minter has long championed ‘unfairness’ in her failed re-election bid for State Representative in 2022 and now in her current campaign for Mayor. In a February social media post she writes, “Proud to speak at the Fairness Rally this week at the Capitol about my advocacy for a Fairness ordinance in Bowling Green. It’s past time that Bowling Green join 24 other cities in Kentucky that have this protection.”
With Minter, Beasley-Brown and Bailey supporting ‘unfairness,’ the November City Commission election presents a crossroads for our community – one more vote in favor of the ordinance will make it a reality in Bowling Green.
Despite all of the energy invested in this effort, there are no documented cases of sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination in Bowling Green, as verified by city officials last month.
In choosing our city’s Commissioners this fall, voters will decide whether our community stands for equal rights for all, or special rights for some. Federal discrimination laws and state statutes already exist to protect citizens from discrimination. Our community should find elected officials and candidates that encourage these ideas repugnant, and vote accordingly.
Tonja Tuttle is the co-founder of Warren County Conservatives. She can be reached at tonjatuttle@warrencountyconservatives.org.