Thank your House leadership

Hey, folks:

Thank your House leadership for standing strong.

~Jody

Dear Friend,

Through a rather transparent smoke and mirrors act, Governor Fletcher has attempted to put domestic partner benefits on the chopping block in a special legislative session ostensibly called to deal with energy policy.

House Leadership has rejected the Governor's attempt to cynically use anti-gay sentiment to boost his re-election campaign.

Visit the Kentucky Fairness Alliance to thank House Leadership for protecting ALL Kentucky families. http://eqfed.org/campaign/ThankHouse?rk=o11aFBY16sOoW

Thanks, Richmond, for the Hospitality!

Thank you, fair-minded folks in Richmond for hosting our summer retreat. I know I enjoyed the hospitality and facilities you provided for us. I'm sure the other state Board members and staff that attended feel the same way. As to the work we accomplished over the weekend, by the time to leave on Sunday... I think we were all worn out, but it was well worth it. Below are a few pictures from the retreat (and pool party).

~Jody

Those great generic responses...

So, I got one of those generic response letters from Representative Whitfield’s camp in response to participating in an online advocacy campaign regarding H.R. 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007. I like the short and to the point nature of the response over the last one of these I received from Senator McConnell’s office. Maybe they should conspire on which staffer writes these letters. McConnell’s last response went so far as to plug the administration’s view on the matter at hand.

Below is what I received back from Rep. Whitfield:

“H.R. 2015 was introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (MA) and has been referred to four House Committees – Education and Labor, Administration, Oversight and Government Reform, and Judiciary. Although I do not serve any of those Committees, I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind should this bill come before the full House for a vote.”

~Jody

Town Hall in Lexington

Thank you, Lexington, for a good town hall gathering on Thursday evening. I enjoyed being able to be there and take part in your discussion on policy goals that you feel are important. As more of these town hall gatherings are held across the state in the coming months, I’m interested to see how the different geographic regions of the Commonwealth identify different priorities.

~Jody

PS – Great job to KFA Communication Director Misty York for facilitating the discussion and thanks to Board members Scotty Saltsman and Nick Wilkerson for attending.

SB5, and a great letter to the editor

Well, the Kentucky Senate did it again. They overwhelmingly passed hateful SB5 today by a vote of 28 to 6. SB5 would ban state universities from offering their equal healthcare coverage. However, there were some great moments today… like when Senator Scorsone had the following to say regarding the Senate having the authority to act on the pieces they did today, "We should not debate this issue or any other measure," he said. "Look at the other end of the Capitol, the lights are off. They've gone home and we should as well." Shortly to follow, Senator Carroll (while being against dp benefits) spoke about Governor Fletcher playing politics saying it was “Fletcher's own appointed university trustees who voted in favor of the domestic partner benefits.” He asked whether the governor had called any university board members and said, "Look, what you're doing is against my personal conviction and I ask you not to do it?" Fletcher's decision to add the bill to the call "reflects a political position he hasn't taken leadership on." Nice job to both these Senators and the other four that voted against SB5 today. The last piece of great news is this letter to the editor in the Herald Leader today by Representative Tom Burch of Louisville.

~Jody

UK benefits plan no threat to marriage
Opponents of the University of Kentucky's new benefits plan argue that making health insurance accessible to domestic partners is harmful to the common good -- that is, an employer who provides an employee and a sponsored dependent with the same health insurance benefits as married-couple families somehow contributes to devaluing marriage.

Many factors have contributed to the increase in the divorce rate, the higher rate of single-person households and the rise in the rate of single-parent households. However, providing health insurance benefits has never been cited as one those factors.

In fact, it could be easily argued that the provision of health insurance benefits by employers is extremely helpful to the common good. Better health care and more access to health care for more people is a good thing.

Furthermore, even though studies show that marriage is correlated with many positive characteristics, it does not necessarily follow that if everyone is married, all the negatives sometimes associated with divorce and single parenthood would disappear. Staying in a violent or destructive marriage or marrying for the wrong reasons are likely to be highly correlated with negative consequences.

Additionally, a combination of economic and demographic changes in the United States has made the traditional, "ideal" family household a less-frequent occurrence. The proportion of married-couple households with their own children declined from 40 percent of all households in 1970 to 28 percent in 2006.

The number of families whose head of household was living with children or other relatives but had no spouse present increased from 11 percent of households in 1970 to 17 percent in 2006. An even greater change has been the increase in the proportion of one-person households: up 9 percentage points between 1970 and 2006, from 17 percent to 27 percent.

The bottom line is that there is a much greater diversity in household arrangements than in the past and that the provision of health care in our society needs to change to reflect that reality.

Fairness in the Session and Thanks to Lexmark

This has been a busy week for fairness in Kentucky. The anti-fairness folks across the state have geared up for the special legislative session, but it seems fair healthcare is safe for the moment. It seems now that there is some talk between the Governor and House leadership lined up for tomorrow. The beat goes on… stay tuned to the KFA website for informaiton about how you can help protect healthcare for all of Kentucky's families.

With all the stress this week, there is good news. I am pleased to say one of Kentucky’s corporations with a history of supporting fairness has again agreed to sponsor the statewide fairness gala. Lexmark (www.lexmark.com) agreed to become a Patron of the 3rd Annual Dinner of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. THANK YOU! Your support is greatly appreciated and I look forward to seeing you on Nov. 10th.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the annual fairness gala, please contact Executive Director Christina Gilgor at cgilgor@kentuckyfairness.org or myself for a prospectus.

~Jody