The Kentucky Fairness Alliance (KFA) is an American gay rights organization formed in 1993 and based in Kentucky. The organization provides public education and advocacy on issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) individuals and families in Kentucky.
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Because of its role as an advocate for GLBT Kentuckians, the history of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance mirrors the legal and legislative issues affecting gay rights in Kentucky since the early 1990s. In 1993 a group of GLBT Kentuckians from across the Commonwealth, but principally from Louisville and Central Kentucky, formed the Kentucky Fairness Alliance Education Fund with the expressed purpose of educating the public on GLBT issues.
The organization's founders included Carla Wallace and Pam McMichael of Louisville; Pam Goldman and Keith Elston of Lexington; Barry Grossheim of Northern Kentucky; the Rev. Ben Guess of Henderson; and other activists from around the state. Many in this group came to the Kentucky Fairness Alliance from their involvement in groups like Louisville's Fairness Campaign and Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Service Organization. The group's formation was in part a response to attempts in the Kentucky General Assembly to recriminalize consensual sodomy after the Kentucky Supreme Court, in Kentucky v. Wasson overturned a statute making consensual oral or anal sex between members of the same sex illegal while allowing these sex acts between members of the opposite sex.[1]
A coalition of state and national organizations were unsuccessful in their opposition of the 2004 anti-marriage amendment Kentucky Constitution that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples.
In May 2007 the Steering Committee members of the Lexington Chapter of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance (Bluegrass Fairness), broke from the state organization and started an independent organization that in early 2008 incorporated under the name Lexington Fairness.
On June 01, 2008, all members of the Steering Committee for the Northern Kentucky Fairness Alliance resigned. The group now operates as a task force under the name Equality Northern Kentucky.
On January 09, 2008 Kentucky Equality Federation’s General Advisory Council condemned Kentucky Fairness Alliance[2]. The condemnation was short lived; on April 18, 2008 Kentucky Equality Federation's Board of Directors rescinded the General Advisory Council's condemnation of Kentucky Fairness Alliance and terminated 9 of the 14 members on the General Advisory Council.
According to published reports, one reason for the dispute between the two organizations was related to Bluegrass Fairness of Central Kentucky[3], once a chapter of Kentucky Fairness Alliance. Kentucky Equality Federation’s General Advisory Council also sited problems in working with Christina Gilgor, Executive Director of Kentucky Fairness Alliance. Gilgor responded by saying "In a community so broad, complete agreement on every issue all the time is near impossible."[4]
Kentucky Fairness Alliance held the 1st Annual Gay & Lesbian Film Series Kickoff Gala on May 30, 2008 in Louisville. The Human Rights Campaign, and Kentucky Equality Federation where among the many sponsors[5] of the event supporting Kentucky Fairness Alliance.