VICTORY: Court affirms Christian’s right to refuse in good faith to make ‘LGBT Pride’ shirts

May 17, 2017 by Jill

by Peter LaBarbera, LifeSite:

The Kentucky Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a previous court victory for a Christian who in 2012 declined to make a t-shirt for the Lexington homosexual “Pride Festival,” saying to do so would violate his faith.

Blaine Adamson’s Lexington-based company, Hands On Originals Christian Outfitters, offers “high quality, customized Christian apparel,” according to its website.

“The right of free speech does not guarantee to any person the right to use someone else’s property,” wrote Appeals Court Chief Judge Joy Kramer. “The ‘conduct’ Hands On Originals chose not to promote was pure speech. … Nothing in the fairness ordinance prohibits Hands On Originals, a private business, from engaging in viewpoint or message censorship.”

In 2014, Adamson was found to be in violation of Lexington’s pro-LGBT “non-discrimination” ordinance by the city’s Human Rights Commission after politely turning down the “Lexington Pride Festival” design requested by the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, which is now called the Pride Community Services Organization.

With help from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Adamson appealed the decision and in 2015 Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael ruled that Adamson cannot be compelled to print a message he opposes “advocating sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman.”

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