Board of Directors Report

Jody Cofer, Chair

As the e-mail of Nov. 14th stated, our 3rd annual Out & About gala held in Louisville was a time to reconnect with family and make new friends while celebrating leaders of change. The evening was made possible through the support of our corporate and individual sponsors, volunteers, and those folks excited to convene in grand old Louisville to celebrate. We send a thank you to everyone who contributed in any way to the event's success.
 
In my welcome letter at Out & About, I referenced the completion of the fairness circle of 2007 with our gala and the immediate need to renew our work towards the future. In this winter E-news, you can already see work towards a fairer future for Kentuckians taking place. 

A piece of pro-fairness legislation, the Hospital Visitation bill (BR 489), has been pre-filed by Representative Mary Lou Marzian of Louisville that will allow for adult hospital patients to designate another adult to be treated as family by hospital staff. This legislation would be a step towards a fairer Kentucky for everyone, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. You can expect to see the Kentucky Fairness Alliance working to support this piece of legislation during the upcoming legislative session. 

Kentuckians Value Fairness Day II is being organized for 2008 and another strong showing of fair-minded folks from across the Commonwealth is needed. The threat of anti-fairness extremists attempting to ban the fair healthcare already provided by some state universities is certain. Leaders in the fairness community from across the state are organizing and will be working over the coming weeks on strategies regarding how best to counter this impending threat to fairness. 

For those of you who didn't attend Out & About, Anthem placed an advertisement on the program's back cover. It read, "...by extending these benefit options to our members, we are leading the way in encouraging the growth of inclusive policies that not only recognize, but encourage diversity of all kinds." 

As your statewide grassroots organization, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance needs your help in re-enforcing Anthem's statement to our elected officials. We must show our legislators, make them comprehend, the hardships the LGBT community faces on a daily basis. We must rally to demonstrate that attacks on fair healthcare are disrespectful and unfair for Kentuckians. Fair healthcare is an urgent reason for you to be in Frankfort for Kentuckians Value Fairness Day - fairness really is A KENTUCKY VALUE!
 
Internally, the KFA Board of Directors participated in a work day on Saturday, December 8th. On that day, we spanned out across the entire state to work on a variety of projects. Local leaders organized phone banks, letter writing campaigns, and event planning meetings. 

The directors and staff can always use your help to build a fair Kentucky from the ground up. If you have a few free hours and are ready to donate them to fairness – shoot us an e-mail!  We might already have something in the works in your community (you'd be surprised) so let us know.