Kentucky court rules on free speech case

Judges side with business owner who refused to print gay pride T-shirts

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky Court of Appeals on Friday sided with Hands On Originals, a Lexington business that refused to print T-shirts in 2012 for Lexington’s Gay and Lesbian Services Organization because the company’s owner said he had religious objections to “pride in being gay.”

In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of appeals judges affirmed an earlier decision by Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael that also sided with Hands On Originals, striking down a finding by the Lexington Human Rights Commission that the business had violated the city’s fairness ordinance.

Hands On Originals’ managing owner, Blaine Adamson, refused to print T-shirts for the 2012 Lexington Pride Festival because he disagreed with the shirt’s message of gay pride.

“Because of my Christian beliefs, I can’t promote that,” Adamson told a hearing officer. “Specifically, it’s the Lexington Pride Festival, the name and that it’s advocating pride in being gay and being homosexual, and I can’t promote that message. It’s something that goes against my belief system.”

In 2012, the Human Rights Commission said that service refusal violated the city’s fairness ordinance, part of which prohibits businesses that are open to the public from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation.

However, the Court of Appeals disagreed on Friday, ruling that speech is not necessarily protected under the fairness ordinance.

While the ordinance does protect gays and lesbians from discrimination because of their sexual orientation, what Hands On Originals objected to was spreading the gay rights group’s message, Chief Judge Joy A. Kramer wrote in the majority opinion. That is different than refusing to serve the group because of the sexual behavior of its individual members, she wrote. A Christian who owns a printing company should not be compelled to spread a group’s message if he disagrees with it, Kramer wrote.

“The right of free speech does not guarantee to any person the right to use someone else’s property,” Kramer wrote.

“In other words, the ‘service’ Hands On Originals offers is the promotion of messages,” she wrote. “The ‘conduct’ Hands On Originals chose not to promote was pure speech. There is no contention that Hands On Originals is a public forum in addition to a public accommodation. Nothing in the fairness ordinance prohibits Hands On Originals, a private business, from engaging in viewpoint or message censorship.”

In an interview Friday, Adamson said he would not object to printing shirts for gays or lesbians as long as those shirts did not carry a message promoting homosexuality.

“I don’t leave my faith at the door when I walk into my business,” Adamson said.