Charlie Butts (OneNewsNow.com) Wednesday, October 08, 2014
A t-shirt printer in Kentucky could be punished by a so-called human rights commission after refusing to print t-shirts for a homosexual group.
Hands on Originals owner Blaine Adamson was asked to print the shirts for the Lexington Pride Festival but declined. Instead, he found a printer willing to do the job and for the same price. But that wasn’t good enough – activists with the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization filed a complaint against Adamson before the commission, which is now expected to decide his fate.
Campbell, Jim (ADF)Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jim Campbell tells OneNewsNow that Adamson has completed t-shirt orders for gay customers in the past but simply disagreed with the event.
In a press release, ADF explained that a judge concluded that Adamson violated a City of Lexington ordinance that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation. Now the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission will decide Adamson’s guilt or innocence, and decide punishment.
“No one in America should be forced to express messages they disagree with,” argues Campbell, comparing Adamson’s situation to a black business owner forced to promote the racist message of the Klu Klux Klan.
“Or how about if we force a supporter of same-sex marriage to promote the idea that marriage is the union of a man and a woman,” Campbell says.
At the original hearing this summer, a spokesman for the homosexual group, citing the city ordinance, said a homosexual printer in Lexington would be forced to take a t-shirt order from Westboro Baptist Church. The notorious Kansas church demonstrates with signs that read, “God hates fags” among other hateful slogans.
On its website, ADF included a 30-second audio clip of the gay activist discussing Westboro and the Lexington ordinance.
Adamson’s legal troubles mirror a movie produced by American Family Studios, “Accidental Activist,” about a t-shirt printer whose business is targeted by homosexuals after he signs a petition defending traditional marriage.
A Laymans Discourse 