State commision charged with protecting religious freedom opposed religious freedom bill

Gee, I wish I had my own government agency to push my political agenda for me.

The Kentucky Human Rights Commission was on of the groups that sent letters to Gov. Beshear asking him to veto HB 279 the Religious Freedom Act.

Now let's think about this for a minute. This is a government commission whose stated purpose is to enforce the Kentucky Civil Rights Act. Now the Kentucky Civil Rights Act covers pretty much all the things the Federal Civil Rights Act covers. Here's what it says it's for:

To safeguard all individuals within the state from discrimination because of familial status, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age forty (40) and over, or because of the person's status as a qualified individual with a disability as defined in KRS 344.010 and KRS 344.030.

Notice what it includes: religion. Part of the Human Rights Commission's purpose, in other words, is to protect against religious discrimination. But instead of doing this, they used their taxpayer-derived resources to fight a bill that would help protect against religious discrimination!

In the most egregious recent case of religious discrimination in Kentucky, the Human Rights Commission was either asleep at the switch or just simply not interested in getting involved. It involved Martin Gaskell, who sued the University of Kentucky for denying him a job because, as the e-mail of one UK professor put it, he was a "potential evangelical." As a result, Gaskell filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

He never heard back.

Apparently the Commission was just too busy doing what the Kentucky Civil Rights Act gives them absolutely no authority to do: engage in gay rights activism. The Kentucky Civil Rights Act does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. There have been proposed laws to change this, but so far the State Legislature has chosen not to pass them.

Your taxpayer dollars--at play.

The completely useless Kentucky Human Rights Commision

In case anyone wondered why we have a Kentucky Human Rights Commission, members of the group drove today from various parts of the state to Louisville, all expenses paid, and ... passed a resolution against Confederate license plates.

So far, no word on the religious discrimination complaint filed by Martin Gaskell against the University of Kentucky in May of 2008. Let's see, that's one, two, ... three years ago.

Must be conducting an extensive investigation.

Not.

Where was the KY Human Rights Commission on the Gaskell Affair?

The Associated Press is on the story of the Scientific Inquisition at the University of Kentucky:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — University of Kentucky scientists wondered to each other in internal e-mails if an astronomer's Christian faith would interfere with a prestigious job as the director of a new student observatory, according to court records in the man's discrimination case set for trial in February.

Even though Martin Gaskell says he is not a creationist, he claims he was passed over for the job at UK's MacAdam Student Observatory three years ago because of his religion and statements that were perceived to be critical of the theory of evolution.

While we're all marveling at the intolerance of a university that preaches Tolerance and Diversity but practices Intolerance and enforces Uniformity, let us take a moment ask where Kentucky Human Rights Commission was during all this.

According to the deposition of Gaskell, it was revealed that, on the advice of his attorneys, he had filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, but never heard anything back. Why does the Human Rights Commission have plenty of time to use its statutory status to lobby for left wing social causes but has no time to bother with religious discrimination complaints from people like Gaskell?