Unanimous Vote Makes Highland Heights 16th KY City with LGBTQ Fairness Ordinance; 6th to Pass the Law in 2019

(Highland Heights, KY - December 3, 2019) With a unanimous vote of 6-0 by city council tonight, the Northern Kentucky town of Highland Heights, est. population 7,103 and home of Northern Kentucky University, became the sixteenth city in the Commonwealth with a Fairness Ordinance prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Highland Heights rounds out a record-breaking year for Fairness Ordinances in Kentucky by becoming the sixth city in 2019 to enact the law, double the number of previous record years in 1999 and 2013.

Highland Heights joins three other Northern Kentucky cities with Fairness Ordinances, including Covington, Dayton, and Bellevue.

"I am so proud to be a part of a growing trend in our Commonwealth to spread love and inclusion," said Highland Heights City Councilperson Rene Heinrich, who initially introduced the measure to council. "Thanks to the passage of this ordinance, Highland Heights now has taken a stand to say the the LGBTQ+ community has the same rights as others: no more, no less."

The sixteen Kentucky cities with local Fairness Ordinances cover more than a quarter of the state's population-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), and Highland Heights (2019).

2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the introduction of a Statewide Fairness Law, which has only received two informational hearings in the Kentucky General Assembly, never a vote. This year, nearly a quarter of state legislators co-sponsored the measure.

ATTACHED: Maps of Kentucky Cities with LGBTQ Fairness Ordinances

Founded in 1991, the Fairness Campaign is Kentucky's broad-based community effort dedicated to equal rights for lesbian gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Its primary goal is comprehensive civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and to dismantle systemic racism.