The annual Kentucky Fairness Rally brought together LGBTQ advocates, lawmakers, and supporters in the Capitol rotunda Wednesday.
Speakers revved up a packed house, again calling on the Republican-led General Assembly to pass a statewide fairness law and to vote down measures like the so-called "bathroom bill," requiring schools to designate restrooms based on students' "immutable biological sex." Critics slammed that, and other measures, as outright attacks on gay, lesbian, and transgender Kentuckians.
Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes led the animated audience in chants of "Hate has no place in our state," before pointing them toward the ballot box in November.
Karen Berg, a state Senate candidate and mother to an openly gay son and daughter, stood in the audience - draped in a rainbow-colored flag.
"It is astounding to me that people do not have equal rights still because of their sexual orientation or gender orientation," she told WUKY. "I find it unfathomable."
Groups also took time to lobby senators and representatives ahead of the rally, a strategy supportive lawmakers said is vital to making any gains in the statehouse.
The event was hosted by a number of advocacy groups spread across the state, including Lexington Fairness.
