Queer Kentucky ISSUE 07: Letter from the Executive Director
Queer Kentucky ISSUE 07: 25 Faces of Fairness is available now in select stores and on our website.
Dear Reader,
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
— Audre Lorde
My journey to Kentucky was your common American dream.
Dyke lives in Ohio.
Dyke reads about a violent attack outside of a gay bar in Kentucky.
Dyke learns local ordinance makes this a hate crime.
Dyke moves to Kentucky.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky now boasts 24 fairness ordinances across the state and while no law can guarantee safety, justice, or carry the promise of enforcement, each of our 24 ordinances send a powerful message to our local community and statewide leaders. In its most basic form, each ordinance acts as a symbolic gesture (or warning) to local landlords, businesses, and residents. An unrealized and untested promise to take action “if” needed. At its best, an ordinance can lead to creating or scaling systems for enforcement so that when the need for action arises the foundation is already laid. And when over two dozen municipalities have to pass their own protections because the state can’t, or won’t, it sends a strong message to our elected officials that we can get shit done on our own.
Fairness serves as the legislative acknowledgment of the unique and often violent barriers that the LGBTQ+ communities face including higher rates of housing and employment discrimination, healthcare barriers, increased threats and acts of violence, and the overall toil that being constantly alert takes on your mental and physical health.
Our community doesn’t ask themselves if they will be harmed one day.
Our community wants to know if they will be supported when it happens.
And that supportive web is growing. All across our Commonwealth are thousands of leaders working to expand queer liberation in Kentucky by increasing community connection, education, access to resources, and advanced legislative protections. And it’s a pleasure to be able to bring you a small sample of those incredible people, places, and history that have changed and saved LGBTQ+ lives across Kentucky.
Missy
