FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) – The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled in favor of a Hands On Originals, a Lexington t-shirt printing company that refused to print t-shirts for the city’s pride festival. In the opinion, Justice Laurance VanMeter wrote the wrong party filed the suit, making it almost impossible to determine who was discriminated against. In August, the Human Rights Commission argued before the court that a vendor has the freedom to choose what they sell but not to choose who they sell to. Attorneys on the other side countered that argument by saying you can object to a message and that, in this case, it’s permissible because Hands On Originals was being asked to create speech through a t-shirt. In 2012, the owner of Hands On Originals, Blaine Adamson, refused to print the shirt due to his religious beliefs. The city of Lexington said it violated the city’s fairness ordinance. The ordinance prohibits a public accommodation from discriminating against individuals based on their sexual orientation of gender identity. In the ruling, justices found that no individual claimed Hands On had discriminated against them. The state law defines an individual as one single human. You can read the full […]
