The Kentucky Supreme Court has dismissed — on a technicality — a lawsuit brought against a shop that refused to print T-shirts for Lexington’s 2012 Pride Festival. “The court sidestepped debates over civil rights and the freedoms of religion and speech by ruling on a legal technicality, that the party that brought the claim — the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization — lacked the statutory standing to do so because it was not the party denied service by the business,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The party who was denied service by Hands On Originals has not been identified, but that person is the one who should have brought the complaint, the court ruled Thursday. It was the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, as sponsor of the Pride Festival, that filed a complaint with the Lexington Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission in 2014 found the shop had violated Lexington’s Fairness Ordinance, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, in refusing to print the T-shirts. Blaine Adamson, the co-owner and manager, said his conservative Christian beliefs prevented him from doing providing goods bearing a pro-LGBTQ message. The commission did not impose a fine on the store, but it ordered […]
