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Politics

Will Kentucky Embrace Ashley Judd’s Progressive Senate Run?

By Aviva Shen on Dec 4, 2012 at 10:33 am


Rumors that film star Ashley Judd is considering a run for Senate in her native Kentucky are solidifying. Politico reported Tuesday that Judd has spoken to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and a Democratic pollster about a possible challenge to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Judd, an unabashed progressive activist, attended the Democratic National Convention this year as a delegate from Tennessee, where she currently lives. Should she decide to run, it won’t be difficult to determine where she stands on crucial policy issues. Here are just a few examples:

  • Women’s health. Judd has been an outspoken advocate for women’s health groups NARAL Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood. As she marveled in May, “It’s remarkable to me that I would be having conversations with my peers and the younger cohort about access to reproductive health. That’s the same conversation I have with girls and women in Bangladesh. It’s the same conversation I have in Cambodia and Madagascar. And here we are in America in 2010, talking about whether or not modern family planning is useful. I mean I find that extraordinary.”
  • Equal pay for women. The film star has talked many times about the importance of equal pay legislation such as the Lilly Ledbetter Act:

  • Fighting the coal industry. The eighth-generation Kentucky native spoke at a rally against mountaintop removal coal-mining, calling it a “scourge” and a “tragedy” that has devastated the state’s natural resources:
  • Climate change. Judd is firmly against off-shore oil drilling and testified to a House subcomittee on the benefits of cap and trade legislation. She noted on the red carpet that she specifically supports, “designating 5 percent of the revenue generated by cap and trade to help ameliorate and offset the damage global climate change is doing to different environmental systems.”
  • Equal marriage rights. Judd praised President Obama at the DNC for embracing same-sex marriage rights, saying she was “extremely proud” because he was “displaying his values and his belief in equality.”
  • Obamacare. At the DNC she extolled the Affordable Care Act as having helped 350,000 Tennessean families with pre-existing conditions, while 60,000 young people are now covered under their parents’ insurance.

These boldly liberal stances may not help the star win over deep-red Kentucky, and she is not likely to compromise them. As her own grandmother said, “She’s a Hollywood liberal. It would be interesting to see what type of race she would run.”

LGBT

Lexington Human Rights Commission Rules Against Discriminating T-Shirt Company

By Zack Ford on Nov 28, 2012 at 10:50 am

Back in march, the Kentucky-based T-shirt printer Hands On Originals refused to print apparel for the Lexington Pride festival, claiming that as a Christian company, the order violated its values. The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) filed a complaint, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission has now ruled that Hands On Originals did discriminate in violation of local policies protecting sexual orientation.

Defending Hands On Originals, the Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the company shouldn’t have to “promote messages they disagree with,” including “that people should be ‘proud’ about engaging in homosexual behavior or same-sex relationships.” The Commission rejected this argument, noting that the company rejected the order not because of the message of the shirt — a stylized five marking the anniversary of Lexington Pride with a list of sponsors on the back — but because of the identity of the group ordering the shirts.

Hands On Originals also tried to argue that the situation was comparable to the Ku Klux Klan asking a black business owner to print shirts for a rally, but the Commission pointed out that the KKK is not a group within a protected class of people. Furthermore, the company has previously printed shirts with other designs that “could be interpreted as crude or in conflict with a person’s Christian beliefs.”

Though the T-shirt printer argued that it employs gay workers and has filled orders for gay customers in the past, the Commission pointed it out that that “does not eliminate the fact that they denied GLSO business based on their sexual orientation.”

The investigation is complete, but the case is ongoing. GLSO and Hands On Originals will now meet with an independent hearing examiner to determine possible compensatory damages. The law does not allow for punitive damages in such cases, but the GLSO is not seeking monetary damages anyway.

Economy

Kentucky Rep: GOP Belief That Tax Cuts For Rich Spur Economic Growth Is ‘Faith-Based Economics’

By Travis Waldron on Oct 24, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)

The Republican Party’s insistence on protecting tax cuts for the wealthy as their end-of-year expiration approaches is a practice in “faith-based economics” that ignores statistics about job growth over the last decade, Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth (D) said Tuesday.

The high-income tax rates expire at the end of the year, part of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” In an interview with ThinkProgress, Yarmuth blasted the GOP claim that letting the high-income cuts expire amounted to a tax hike on “job creators”:

YARMUTH: That’s nonsense, to be quite honest. All you have to do is look at the Bush years when those tax rates were in play and you had one of the worst eras of job creation in modern history. So, that was the whole purpose of cutting those rates back down. But it didn’t create jobs, and there’s really not any evidence that it ever does.

The vast majority of people who are actually hiring and firing, making those decisions, they make those decisions based on whether there’s enough business to justify hiring another person.

It’s a silly argument that’s based on some kind of faith-based economic system that really doesn’t exist in the real world.

Republican supply-side policies (once referred to as “voodoo economics” by then-presidential candidate George H.W. Bush) have indeed failed to generate the job and economic growth the GOP promised. The Bush tax cuts were followed by the worst growth in job creation in more than six decades, as they blew a massive hole in the federal budget. Both jobs and the economy as a whole grew faster under the higher Clinton-era tax rates.

Recent studies have shown that the expiration of the high-end Bush tax cuts would have little or no effect on economic growth, and even some Republicans have admitted that the cuts failed to spur growth at the rates the GOP had promised. Still, the party insists on the preservation of the lower tax rates for the wealthy and has even blocked an extension of the middle-income rates because Democrats refused to extend the high-income cuts too.

NEWS FLASH

Kentucky Legislator Proposes Redundant Bill To Ban Abortion Coverage Under Federal Health Reform | Kentucky state Rep. Stan Lee (R) has proposed a bill to prevent abortion coverage from being included in plans offered through the state’s health insurance exchange under Obamacare, even though state officials have already assured Republicans that “elective abortions” will not be covered. After concerns from GOP lawmakers, the Kentucky Department of Insurance posted a notice on its website earlier this year that including the coverage “would be a violation of state law and has never been considered.” But Lee said he wants the ban on abortion coverage “just to make sure,” and is convinced his bill will fly through the legislature when lawmakers reconvene in January.

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Sep 28, 2012 at 3:10 pm

NEWS FLASH

Diabetes Affects 15 Percent Of All Americans, But One-Third Of Appalachia | A Salon profile on the diabetes epidemic in America highlights the disease’s discrepancies across different regions and economic classes. Nationwide, diabetes affects about 15 percent of all Americans, but across the Appalachian region, a full third of the population is believed to be diabetic — and some estimates predict that 50 percent of the mountain population will be diabetic in 25 years. One health worker pointed out that expanding access to assistance programs could help encourage at-risk patients to seek preventative care, since drugs for pre-diabetic or borderline patients can cost up to $100 for those who aren’t covered by Medicaid or Medicare. Under Obamacare, states have the option of expanding the Medicaid program to cover additional low-income people who weren’t eligible for coverage before the health reform law. Some governors, including Kentucky’s, have not yet decided whether to accept the Medicaid expansion; some Republican governors have already stated their intention to reject it.

LGBT

Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A Attracts Losers, Repels Prominent Leaders, Universities, And The Public

By Zack Ford on Jul 30, 2012 at 11:30 am

It seems telling that the political conservatives attracting media attention for coming to the defense of Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay crusades — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty — are all most recently known for having lost elections. Indeed, the anti-gay vitriol that Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy has repeatedly dispensed has been a loser with the public: YouGov BrandIndex polling shows that the public’s approval of Chick-fil-A has taken a nosedive since Cathy’s interview from 65 to 39:

Meanwhile, a number of prominent leaders have continued to show their displeasure with Chick-fil-A. Here’s a sampling:

  • House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): “For the record, I prefer Kentucky Fried Chick. #ChickFilA” (Twitter)
  • Washington, DC Mayor Vince Gray (D): “Given my longstanding strong support for LGBT rights & marriage equality, I would not support #hatechicken” (Twitter)
  • Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D): “Wouldn’t deny a biz a permit on those grounds BUT I’d join my residents in taking my $’s elsewhere” (Twitter)
  • Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA): “I disagree with what the CEO from Chick-fil-A said. I was glad he spoke further and said that his company does not discriminate.” (Boston.com)

To clarify Brown’s remarks, Chick-fil-A said it will “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect,” regardless of sexual orientation, but the company still has no employment protections in its official corporate policies. According to Forbes.com, there have been at least 12 lawsuits against the company since 1988 on various charges of employment discrimination.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) wrote to the president of New York University, home to the city’s only Chick-fil-A, urging him to end the university’s relationship with the anti-gay restaurant:

NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity. We do not believe in denigrating others…As you know from recent press coverage, the President of Chick-fil-A continues to make statements and support causes that are clear messages of extreme intolerance and homophobia and a belief that LGBT Americans are less than others and deserve to be treated as such.[...]

I urge you to sever your relationship with the Chick-fil-A establishment that exists on your campus. This establishment should be replaced with an establishment where the ownership does not denigrate a portion of our population.

Another university’s leadership has already taken action against a Chick-fil-A on its campus. The president and provost at the University of Louisville released a statement saying that they “will not be eating at Chick-fil-A anytime soon.” Responding to a growing student petition, U of L administrators are currently assessing the contractual arrangements with the franchise on campus to evaluate further courses of action. At least seven other universities also have petitions underway challenging the existence of a Chick-fil-A on their campuses.

Attacking gay people as purveyors of society’s destruction is harmful to many people, and as public condemnation grows, it’s proving to be a losing philosophy for Chick-fil-A.

NEWS FLASH

Kentucky Congressman Calls Out McConnell For Lying About Health Reform | Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) is pushing back against the GOP’s efforts to distort the Affordable Care Act and has written a four-page letter calling out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for including “inaccuracies” in a recent editorial condemning the law. “As members of Congress, I believe we have an obligation to give our constituents the full facts about the law,” Yarmuth wrote, before fact-checking McConnell for falsely claiming that the the law would increase the deficit, prevent small businesses from hiring, and increase health care spending. The Congressman also challenged McConnell to debate the measure earlier this month. Read the full letter HERE.

LGBT

Kentucky T-Shirt Controversy Reveals Conservative Intent To Discriminate And Stigmatize

By Zack Ford on Mar 30, 2012 at 11:20 am

The Pride logo Hands On refused to print.

A Kentucky t-shirt company called Hands On recently refused to print apparel for Lexington’s upcoming LGBT pride festival, claiming to be a Christian company. The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington filed a complaint with the city’s Human Rights Commission, which protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. National conservative groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council have picked up on the controversy and are defending Hands On, but in doing so reveal a clear intent to demonize and ostracize the LGBT community. Here are recent remarks by FRC’s Tony Perkins and the Family Foundation of Kentucky’s Kent Ostrander, as reported by FOTF’s CitizenLink:

PERKINS: Whether it’s a t-shirt company, wedding photographer, or the church, homosexuals will not be satisfied until they compel us to either spread their perversion or promote it. Unfortunately for these activists, the Constitution doesn’t award its rights on the basis of political correctness.

OSTRANDER: The sad part is that this family, because of this intimidation, bullying factor, might lose their business, or a substantial portion of it, because the University of Kentucky and the public schools side with the gay component (and may pull their business).  It’s just wrong for government to be involved in this.

Unfortunately for Perkins and Ostrander, the United States has a free market. That market is only free if all citizens have access to it, which is why non-discrimination laws exist. And if individuals wish to avoid a certain business because of its practices, that’s not “intimidation” — that’s life.

These conservatives’ complaints are ironic when juxtaposed with the National Organization for Marriage’s boycott of Starbucks over its support for marriage equality. The campaign continues to be a dismal failure, outpaced nearly 20 to 1 by the Thank You, Starbucks response and rebuffed by a a sharp increase in Starbucks’ stock value. Apparently, though, it is acceptable to challenge a business for supporting gay rights, but not for openly discriminating against gay people.

NEWS FLASH

Kentucky House Committee Rejects Anti-Bullying Bill | An anti-bullying bill that would have enumerated gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes was rejected by Kentucky’s House Education Committee today despite pleas to pass the bill from parents and friends of two teenagers who committed suicide due to bullying, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. State Rep. Ben Waide (R), in announcing his opposition to the bill, said the bill aimed “to achieve equality by making some people more equal than others” and said it was “about gay rights in our schools,” not bullying. Two Kentucky students — an eighth grader and a high school freshman — committed suicide in the last five months to escape bullying.

NEWS FLASH

Kentucky House Approves Bill To Restore Voting Rights For Released Felons | Yesterday, the Kentucky House of Representatives approved a measure for a statewide referendum on the state’s permanent disenfranchisement of people convicted of a felony. Currently, Kentucky is one of just four states — joined by Iowa, Virginia, and Florida — that strip voting rights from anyone convicted of a felony, even after they have repaid their debt to society. If the bill is approved by the Republican-held Senate, voters will decide in the fall whether to restore voting rights for released felons, except those convicted of the most serious crimes.

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