Hands on Originals, a Lexington, Kentucky-based printer, has lost a two-year legal battle for now after the Christian-oriented print shop refused to create T-shirts for a gay pride parade. Reporting for TheBlaze.com, Billy Hallowell notes that, “Greg Munson of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission announced last Tuesday that Hands on Originals, a T-shirt company based in Lexington, Kentucky, discriminated against the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington when it refused to print the shirts.”
But, despite the loss, Hands on Original owner Blaine Adamson plans to appeal the decision. “Hands on Originals is a Christian business and the views espoused by the T-shirt — which advertised a gay pride festival — violated [my] religious beliefs.”
The case has taken on added importance coming as it is on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in what is now known at the Hobby Lobby verdict. The case, which for the first time in American history, allows for-profit corporations to be exempt from a law its owners religiously object to if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law’s interest, has set up a potential conflict between groups traditionally discriminated against with those who have long argued that their religious beliefs take precedence over all else.
Adamson, who employs close to 30 people, has stated that he would never intentionally discriminate against anyone who came into his shop, gay or straight, but draws the line on printing anything that undermines his religious convictions.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm, which has been defending Adamson throughout the two-year legal process said in prepared remarks that the commission’s preliminary ruling isn’t so clear as to be definitive. It reads in part, “The Respondent’s refusal to provide goods and services of public accommodation to the Charging Party constitutes unlawful discrimination against the members of the [Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington] on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity in violation of Local Ordinance 201-99.”
The firm has argued that local human rights commissions often times have “scattered, unclear rules.” At this point he said that Munson’s ruling will not officially stand until it is either adopted or modified by the full Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission. “Once we do get a final decision of the commission we would have an opportunity to appeal, we are very likely to appeal.”
“If you’re going to do business in Lexington, you must make your goods and services accessible to everyone regardless of the protected classes, including sexual orientation and gender identity,” Raymond Sexton, executive director of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “If this was a case involving race, religion or national origin, there would be no debate on right or wrong.”
