Louisville, Ky. (AP) — A judge in Lexington has ruled in favor of a shop that refused to print gay pride festival T-shirts.
The ruling on April 27 by Fayette County Circuit Judge James Ishmael overturns a decision by the city’s Human Rights Commission.
The commission had ruled in 2014 that the print shop, Hands On Originals, violated a city law that bans discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation. The shop says it has refused several jobs because of its Christian beliefs.
Ishmael said the Human Rights Commission went beyond its statutory authority in siding with the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization. The judge said that the print shop’s refusal in 2012 was based on the message of the gay group and pride festival and “not on the sexual orientation of its representatives or members.”
