{"id":16021,"date":"2019-11-04T02:41:34","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=16021"},"modified":"2019-11-04T02:41:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:41:34","slug":"kentucky-unqueers-the-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2019\/11\/04\/kentucky-unqueers-the-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Unqueers The Shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

     For the better part of a decade a shirt maker who wouldn\u2019t make a shirt that expressed a belief he didn\u2019t feel was appropriate. The Kentucky Human Rights Commission, a non-elected bureaucracy, ruled that he was compelled to express speech<\/a> he didn\u2019t want to because not doing so was doubleplusungood. Since then, the shirt maker has had to go through court<\/a> after court<\/a> after court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

     Now, the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled unanimously<\/a> that NO, the shirt maker can not be compelled to speech.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Kentucky Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that a printer cannot be forced to print T-shirts that violate his faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a case that dragged on for seven years, Blaine Adamson, owner of Hands On Originals, a promotional printer in Lexington, declined to print T-shirts for the Lexington Pride Festival, hosted by the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state\u2019s high court wrote in its opinion, \u2018this matter must be dismissed because the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, the original party to bring this action before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, lacked statutory standing to assert a claim against Hands On Originals under the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government ordinance.;<\/p>\n

\u201cA concurring opinion from Justice David Buckingham cited recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent prohibiting compelled speech, writing, \u2018Hands On was in good faith objecting to the message it was being asked to disseminate. \u2026 Forcing free and independent individuals to endorse ideas they find objectionable is always demeaning.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

     The irony is that the shirt maker is anything but a \u201cH8r\u201d,<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c\u2019I have gay customers and employ gay people,\u2019 [the shirt maker] Adamson said in a video op-ed for The Daily Signal in 2017. \u2018For example, we have printed materials for a local band called Mother Jane whose lead singer is a lesbian. That was never a problem for us because, as I said, we\u2019ll work with everyone, but we can\u2019t print all messages.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAdamson also talked about other T-shirts he wouldn\u2019t print, including one that would have read \u2018Homosexuality is a sin.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019I didn\u2019t feel right making that one either. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how Jesus would have handled the issue; Jesus would have balanced grace and truth,\u2019 Adamson said.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     It\u2019s not about who<\/i> is served, but what people are compelled to serve<\/i>.<\/p>\n