Crescent Springs Votes Unanimously for LGBTQ Fairness Ordinance 21st KY Municipality to Approve Fairness, 2nd in Kenton County

(CRESCENT SPRINGS, Ky. - March 22) With a unanimous council vote tonight, the city of Crescent Springs, population 4,036, became the 21st municipality in Kentucky to approve a Fairness Ordinance, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to discrimination protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The ordinance was introduced by Crescent Springs Councilman Justin Hartfiel and received no debate at its second reading and vote.

The Kenton County community becomes the seventh Northern Kentucky city to pass a Fairness Ordinance in the last two years and only the second in the county, where Covington last passed a Fairness Ordinance in 2003.

The twenty-one Kentucky municipalities 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), and Crescent Springs (2021).

Two additional Kentucky cities have partial Fairness Ordinances that extend some LGBTQ discrimination protections, Ashland (housing protections) and Cynthiana (housing and public accommodations protections).

Despite growing bi-partisan support in the Kentucky General Assembly, a Statewide Fairness Law has never received a vote. The U.S. Senate is currently considering the national Equality Act, which recently passed the House, and would extend similar LGBTQ discrimination protections across the country.

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.