Senator Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, made comments in two recent newspaper interviews when asked about the decision by the University of Louisville to offer benefits to domestic partners.
Roeding told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he found the university's actions "repulsive."
"I don't want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people," Roeding said in an article published Friday.
In a Kentucky Post article Saturday he referred to the Kentucky Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates rights for gays and lesbians, "a bunch of queers."
The Kentucky Equality Association condemns Senator Roeding’s comments, demands an apology, and asks for his resignation.
The Kentucky Equality Association believes for this and future generations of Kentuckians to live peacefully, and love their neighbors, we must practice and teach tolerance. Elected representatives who fail to equally represent all of their constituents and give them a full audience must be replaced.
"Senator Roeding claims to have family values; since when do we incorporate hate, fear, and intolerance into family values?" asked Jordan Palmer, association president. "The family is the basic foundation for all communities regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, or appearance."
As Rita Mae Brown, an American writer famously said "No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don't love anybody."
Palmer also stated the only thing "repulsive" is when we as citizens of this commonwealth elect a person who would make such comments to another term. Repulsive is when we submit to ideals of inequality and intolerance instead of defying them.
The Kentucky Equality Association's Board of Directors approved the following definition of "those people" for Senator Roeding:
-Those people are the ones who decide if you'll enjoy another term in office.
-Those people are the ones who ancestors founded this land in the search for equality and justice.
-Those people are the ones you answer to as an elected official.
-Those people are the ones who's sweat and tears pay the taxes that allow someone who would make such a statement to be paid.
Note to editors:
The Kentucky Equality Association currently has more than 5,000 members and supporters throughout the commonwealth (as of May 30, 2006). The Kentucky Equality Association has three authorized chapters operating in the Bluegrass, Jackson Purchase, Northern, and Southeastern Regions of Kentucky.
The Kentucky Equality Association’s Advisory Council determines the Association’s platform, candidate political ratings, and chapter management.
