Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

The Eastern Kentucky city of Somerset is updating its human rights ordinance to elevate sexual orientation and gender identity to civil right status. The goal is to protect those in the LGBT community from unjust discrimination. They're called fairness laws but the application of the law is often unfair and has been used to criminalize religious convictions about human sexuality.  So far, 10 Kentucky cities have fairness or SOGI laws, but in case after case there has been little documentation to justify the laws in the first place. Which makes one wonder why the laws are needed in the first place. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the application of Colorado's "fairness" law when it was used to hurt a baker. Which makes us wonder, if there's no issue in Somerset and if the laws are questionable, why do they need one?