U of L Domestic Partner Decision Boosts our Visibility

On July 13, the Board of Trustees at the University of Louisville gave the go-ahead to University President James Ramsey to implement domestic partner benefits for the university's faculty and staff.

A storm of criticism from the anti-fairness industry erupted immediately. Kent Ostrander of the Family Foundation said in an e-mail to his supporters that the domestic partner plan, “undermines marriage, institutionalizes unhealthy behavior, promotes fraud and will drain huge amounts of dollars from an already strained state budget."

He went on to acknowledge in that same e-mail that personnel decisions like this are rightly left to local control—unless, apparently, he disagrees with them. Because his e-mail concluded with a call to Family Foundation members to call and urge their elected officials to step in with legislation to override the university's decision.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Kentucky Sen. Richard Roeding (R-Lakeside Park) told the Louisville Courier-Journal on July 14 that he found the university's plan, "repulsive," adding, "I don't want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people."

He further insulted the Log Cabin Republicans of Kentucky, a group that advocates for gay and lesbian rights, calling them a "bunch of queers" in the Kentucky Post on July 15.

The Kentucky Fairness Alliance joined the Log Cabin Republicans in a call for Roeding to resign. Kentucky's Democratic Party and Louisville's Fairness Campaign have likewise demanded Sen. Roeding's resignation.

"His comments are completely inappropriate and unbecoming a public figure," said KFA Executive Director Christina Gilgor. "As an elected official he has sworn to serve all his constituents, but he has effectively stated that he would run his LGBT constituents out of the state."

Meanwhile, KFA invited you, our supporters, to sign a petition thanking the University of Louisville's Board of Trustees and asking President Ramsey to go forward with the program immediately.

Your response has been nothing short of amazing.

• 722 of you have signed the petition so far.
• You've sent over 400 tell-a-friend messages urging your friends and family to show their support for the university's decision.
• Those messages have recruited nearly 200 new members to the Kentucky Fairness Alliance online community.

By far, you've made this our most successful online action to date. If you haven't signed the petition yet, please sign today! We'll deliver the letter and your electronic signatures to President Ramsey's office at the end of this month, after the fall semester begins.

Our sincerest thanks to all you e-activists for helping us raise our voice and visibility, for speaking out above a storm of anti-fairness criticism, and for showing the university that fair-minded Kentuckians overwhelmingly approve of their action.