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Kentucky Fairness Alliance Supports Calls for Roeding's Resignation
July 17, 2006
Frankfort --- In the wake of Sen. Richard Roeding's (R-Lakeside Park) deplorable remarks about gay Kentuckians last week, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance (KFA) is joining the call for the senator's resignation.
In Friday's Louisville Courier-Journal, Roeding called the University of Louisville's decision to offer domestic partner benefits to its faculty and staff "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 Kentucky's Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for gay and lesbian rights, calling them a "bunch of queers" in Saturday's Kentucky Post.
KFA rejects the second-hand apology offered on Roeding's behalf by Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville) in Saturday's Kentucky Post.
Williams said he had spoken to Roeding on the phone, and Roeding had apologized. "I accept his apology for using the term [queer]," Williams said.
Williams himself has an abysmal track record on fairness issues. He used a similarly offensive slur in 2004 when he referred to then U.S. Senate candidate Dan Mongiardo of Hazard as "limp-wristed." He further angered fair-minded Kentuckians by defending a $11 million dollar allocation to the University of the Cumberlands, a Baptist-affiliated school that expelled a gay student in April 2006.
"Sen. Roeding's comments are small-minded, hateful, and completely unbecoming an elected official," said KFA Executive Director Christina Gilgor. "His apology to Sen. Williams means nothing to the thousands of fair-minded Kentuckians who feel betrayed and offended by Roeding's bigotry. The only remedy he can offer his lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied constituents is his immediate resignation."
The Ampersand symbolizes the solidarity we are building through Friends & Family, and suggests the inclusiveness we are working toward. It reflects the idea that no one individual, legislator, organization, or city can carry all the water for equality. Our success lies in our solidarity.
