However, Baker says that he got a phone call a while later from Hands-On Originals co-owner Blaine Adamson, who said that the order would be declined because "we're a Christian organization." Adamson had also referred the organization to another printer that would print the shirts at the same price that Hands-On Originals had offered. As The Lexington Herald-Leader reported at the time, the shirts were to feature a stylized number 5 on the front and the words "Lexington Pride Festival," as well as the names of the event's sponsors, on the back.Īaron Baker, president of GLSO's board of directors, said that the organization sought bids from several printers in the area, but landed on Hands-On Originals because the outfit offered the best deal. The citys Gay and Lesbian Services Organization tried to order the T-shirts for its 2012 Gay Pride Festival. However, the case was thrown out on a technicality, and not its actual merits.īack in 2012, Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) approached Hands-On Originals, a Lexington print shop, to order shirts for the upcoming 2012 Gay Pride Festival. (AP) The Kentucky Supreme Court has sided with a print shop owner who refused to make a gay pride T-shirt because he says it was against his religious. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the arguments on Friday will help the court decide whether or not the company, Hands on Originals, violated a Lexington ordinance. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, an appeal of the court's decision is likely.The Kentucky Supreme Court has sided with a printer who refused to make gay pride T-shirts because doing so would have violated his religious beliefs, The Associated Press reports.
The court also held that the Commission's order substantially burdens the free exercise rights of HOO and its owners, in violation of Kentucky's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The court held that it is the right of HOO and its owners "not to be compelled to be part of the advocacy of messages opposed to their sincerely held Christian beliefs." In 2012, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) filed a complaint against Blaine Adamson, the owner of Hands on Originals in Lexington, after he declined the job of printing T-shirts for a local Gay Pride festival. The court concluded that the refusal was not because of the sexual orientation of the representatives that communicated with HOO, but rather because of the message the t-shirt would convey- that one should be proud of sexual relationships other than between a married man and woman.
The business, Hands On Originals ("HOO"), had a policy, displayed on its website, that it would refuse any order that endorsed a position in conflict with the convictions of the business' Christian owners.
Ct., April 27, 2015), a Kentucky state trial court, reversing an order of a county human rights commission, held that a small business that prints promotional items for customers did not violate the county's public accommodation ordinance when it refused to print Lexington Pride Festival t-shirts for the Gay and Lesbian Service Organization. Hands on Originals (HOO), a Christian T-shirt company in Lexington, Ky., was asked to print shirts by Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) for a 2012 pride festival. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, (KY Cir.