Governor Paul Patton vetoed House Bill 70 on March 8, hoping to spare Kentucky an ugly and expensive legal fight. Kentucky's Legislature wrote a law that allows religious organizations to refuse to rent public facilities to people whose views they disagree with. This new law is seen by constitutionalists and civil libertarians as a bigoted attempt to permit Christian churches to discriminate against Kentucky's humanist and gay citizens (and many others, for that matter). Unfortunately, the Kentucky Legislature overrode the Governor's veto on April 14. Therefore, unless legal steps are taken soon, HB 70, the pro-discrimination legislation, will become law on July 15, 2000. Litigation by civil liberties organizations is anticipated.
History of Kentucky House Bill 70
Press Release 31 January 2000, KENTUCKY LEGISLATION LEGITIMATIZES DISCRIMINATION BY CHURCHES IN STATE AGAINST JEWS, GAYS, AND SECULAR HUMANISTS
Newspaper articles about the Kentucky HB 70 controversy
Editorials in opposition to Kentucky HB 70
Letters Sent To Other Kentucky Newspapers About the HB 70 Discrimination Legislation
Op-Ed Essay by Rep. Kathy Stein
Op-Ed Essay by Steven Schafersman
Current Text of House Bill 70, as amended
Legislative History of House Bill 70
For the first two years of its existence, 1996 and 1997, Camp Quest, the only secular humanist summer camp in the United States, rented the camp facilities of the Bullittsburg Baptist Assembly in Boone County, Kentucky. Edwin and Helen Kagin, the founders and leaders of Camp Quest, also live in Boone County. Camp Quest was founded in 1996 by Edwin F. Kagin, a northern Kentucky attorney and Eagle Scout, who felt a summer camp for secular humanist children was needed to counter the discrimination of the Boy Scouts against non-theistic children. From the beginning, Camp Quest and its sponsoring organization, the Free Inquiry Group (FIG) of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, presented themselves as secular humanists to the Bullittsburg Camp and its owners, the Northern Kentucky Baptist Association (NKBA), a coalition of 66 northern Kentucky Baptist churches. The Bullittsburg Camp and NKBA had Camp Quest sign a contract in which the NKBA acknowledged that they followed the public accommodations laws. Despite some minor problems, the arrangement between the secular humanist organizations and the Bullittsburg Camp proceeded amicably for the nine days each summer that Camp Quest used the camp facilities. During the second year, however, while relations with the camp staff remained cordial, it became clear that Camp Quest was not really welcomed at the Baptist Camp, so Camp Quest moved to a camp near Lebanon, Ohio, for the summer of 1998, and will hold its fifth session in 2000 at this Ohio location.
Camp Quest supporters and FIG members were surprised to learn from news reports on 14 January 2000, over 2 1/2 years after the last camp session in the Baptist facility, that the Northern Kentucky Baptists had experienced a "great deal of discomfort" at the presence of secular humanists in their summer camp. The Baptists complained that they were initially not made aware of the secular humanist nature of Camp Quest (a false claim), and that they only rented the property to Camp Quest because they were afraid of being sued (a belief that is entirely imaginary on their part). After two years of apparent discussion, the Baptists decided they now want the legal right to deny the use of their camp grounds to any organization that has a fundamental conflict with their religious beliefs. They therefore asked Kentucky Representative Tom Kerr to sponsor legislation (House Bill 70) that exempts churches from the common anti-discrimination requirements of public accommodation laws. These statutes broadly state that if an organization rents its facilities to outside groups, it may not discriminate against them for the usual reasons of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religious belief, disability, and so forth. (Since many organizations, including churches, are private organizations, they may of course legally deny others the use of their private facilities if they use them exclusively for their own purposes and never rent them to outside groups. In the present case, the Bullittsburg Camp owned by the NKBA has frequently been leased to outside organizations, so the public accommodation anti-discrimination laws apply.)
Tom Kerr's HB 70 passed a committee and has been sent to the floor of the Kentucky House. The legislation is controversial, to say the least (in fact, it is unconstitutional and bigoted), and it inspired news articles (two below) and editorials (three below). One of these editorials, in the Cincinnati Enquirer, partially supported HB 70 in its discrimination against humanists and atheists by churches, and spawned a host of "letter to the editor" responses from readers outraged at its transparent bigotry against freethinkers. Since the Cincinnati Enquirer may not print all of the replies to its editorial, the writers have sent them to this website by email for posting on the web. The writers believe this latest episode in Christian bigotry should receive as much publicity as possible. Edwin Kagin has given permission to reprint all of the letters on his website. To reply yourself to the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial, go to their response form. [29 January 2000]
After listening to comments from others, the original language of HR 70 was recognized by Kerr himself to be overly broad and discriminatory, so he offered a series of amendments to his own bill to mitigate its effect. In general, he is now willing for churches to be prohibited from discriminating on the basis of disability, race, color, and national origin, but he still wants them to be able to deny access to public accommondations if the rental would not be "consistent with the religious tenets of that religious organization." This would allow discrimination not only against humanists and atheists, but also against gays, pagans, non-Christian religionists, non-Baptist Christians, and presumably drinkers, card players, and dancers. In short, under Mr. Kerr's amended bill, the religious or philosophical tenets of every potential organization that wished to rent the NKBA's camp or other publically-leaseable building would be minutely examined to see if they coincided sufficiently with those of the Baptists to allow them to avoid being discriminated against. If they did not, then the organizations could be refused a rental contract. Such vetting of religious tenets could become problematic, since although the attorney for NKBA, Mr. Robert Winter, said that Jews would be allowed access because "Jews believe in God," it is possible that they could be denied access, because they believe in a unitarian God rather than a trinitarian one. The same is true for Moslems. I guess the decision would depend on how closely the religious tenets are being examined on the day of rental application. But perhaps Mr. Kerr has further amendments in mind to clarify these technical issues.
Kentucky Reprsentative Kathy Stein has reported that Tom Kerr and a number of Kentucky House Republicans filed HB 485 on 27 January. According to her, the new bill is a further retreat on Kentucky civil rights enforcement, since it dismantles legal protections against discrimination of persons based on sexual orientation. She believes that a bill this discriminatory and unconstitutional has the hallmarks of Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a sort of ACLU in reverse (instead of defending civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, the ACLJ tries to tear them down in favor of "rights" of religious believers and the supremacy of their beliefs), and that Kentucky is being made a test case with this bill, which is stealthily crafted to steer clear of the Supreme Court's ruling in Romer v. Evans. [30 January 2000]
The Kentucky House passed House Bill 70 (as amended) on February 2 by a vote of 82-17, allowing churches to discriminate against humanists, atheists, gays, pagans, and other groups whose tenets the churches disagree with. The legislation permits churches to deny the use of their property to such groups by exempting religious organizations from state civil rights laws by excluding them from the definition of ''public accommodation.'' That means that religious organizations could refuse to make their facilities available to any group that doesn't share their religious beliefs. Legislators tightened the bill by approving an amendment that Tom Kerr hoped would appease critics who feared that churches might use the proposed law to discriminate against African-Americans and other minorities. The amendment inserted language into the bill making it clear that religious organizations can't discriminate on the basis of disability, race, color or national origin. It added another clause prohibiting discrimination in non-religious activities sponsored by religious organizations. The Kentucky Senate is expected to also approve this legislation, and the Kentucky Governor is expected to sign it into law. Civil rights, civil liberties, state-church separation, humanist, atheist, and gay groups oppose this legislation now as unconstitutionally discriminatory against them, and they plan to oppose it in the courts if it becomes law. [4 February 2000]
House Bill 70 was received in the Kentucky Senate on February 3. It has passed its Senate committees, and will be posted for passage by the full Senate on February 23. [20 February 2000]
House Bill 70 was passed by the Kentucky Senate on February 23. It will be sent to the Governor for signing or veto. [25 February 2000]
Governor Paul Patton vetoed House Bill 70 on March 8, hoping to spare Kentucky an ugly and expensive legal fight caused by its own Legislature's bigoted attempt to allow disrimination by favored (Christian) citizens and organizations against others of its own (humanists and gays) citizens. Americans United for Separation of Church and State thanked the governor for helping to protect American constitutional values. [9 March 2000]
The Kentucky Legislature overrode the Governor's veto on April 14. Therefore, unless legal steps are taken soon, HB 70, the pro-discrimination legislation, will become law on July 15, 2000. Litigation by civil liberties organizations is anticipated. [16 April 2000]
The 1996-1997 Camp Quest lease of the Bullittsburg Baptist Assembly Camp has unexpectedly become an issue of controversy with important implications for religious freedom and civil liberties. Check this webpage for updates on this fast-breaking story. I will post further news reports, editorials, and letters as they come in. To interview Edwin F. Kagin for this story, reporters may call him at 606-384-7000 or email him at edwinkagin@ fuse.net. Representative Kathy W. Stein (Lexington, KY, who is leading the House opposition to HB70 and HB485) may be interviewed for this story at 502-564-8100, ext. 675 (legislative office), 606-225-4269 (office), 606-252-1500 (home), or by email at kathy.stein@lrc.state.ky.us.
Last updated: 25 January 2005