Protections
Extended Once Again to Gay Kentucky State Employees

Kentucky's Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, signed an executive order Monday that prohibits state officials from making hiring or firing decisions based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Experience, qualifications, talent, and performance are what matter," Beshear said in a statement to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Former governor Ernie Fletcher had removed sexual orientation from the list of specifically protected characteristics as part of an executive order he signed in April 2006 after it had been included in 2003 by then-governor Paul Patton.

"This is a major victory for fairness in the Bluegrass State," state senator Ernesto Scorsone, a Lexington Democrat and the state's only openly gay lawmaker, told the Herald-Leader. "The executive branch is setting an example of how to treat employees fairly." (The Advocate)