The Fairness Campaign Unveils First LGBTQ Kentucky Historical Highway Marker In Old Louisville

The Fairness Campaign has unveiled the first LGBTQ Kentucky Historical Highway marker. It is the first historical marker of its kind in Louisville.

In June 2022, the Fairness Campaign celebrated its 31st anniversary in Louisville by applying for a Commonwealth-sanctioned historical marker commemorating the LGBTQ rights movement in Louisville. Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, told Spectrum News: "We want to mark LGBTQ history. We want future generations to be able to look to sites within the city of Louisville and the commonwealth of Kentucky to find their history and to be able to move forward."

Fifty-four years ago, two events blazed the trail toward LGBTQ equality in Louisville: the founding of the Louisville Gay Liberation Front in 1970 and the first lesbian marriage court case that same year.

In June 2024, the new Kentucky Historical Highway Marker was unveiled at 420 Belgravia Court. St. James Court and the adjacent Belgravia Court, a neighborhood of three-story Victorian-style mansions were the headquarters of a group that formed to fight for civil rights fight for Louisville’s LGBTQ community. One apartment in particular at 420 Belgravia Court was home to the Gay Liberation Front and eventually became known as the Gay Liberation House.

In July 1970, two women went to the Jefferson County Clerk’s office to obtain a marriage license under the pseudonyms Tracy Knight and Marjorie Jones. While there was no law in Kentucky that banned same-sex marriages, the clerk denied the couple their marriage license. Undeterred, the couple took their pursuit to court — twice — and it resulted in the Jones v. Hallahan case before the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1973.