Category: News

The Temple: Congregation Adath Israel Brith Shalom

Daniel Denhart-Lillard

The Temple Congregation Adath Israel Brith Shalom, located at the intersection of Brownsboro Road (US Highway 42) and Lime Kiln Lane in the heart of Louisville’s residential East End is Kentucky’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation. Located on a beautiful, wooded, 10-acre lot, The Temple Campus consists of a main building, auditorium, chapel, library, an administrative wing, archives, a religious school and a preschool. An additional two-story building houses a kitchen, fireplace, and room for meetings and activities.

A founding member of what is now Union for Reform Judaism, by 1873 The Temple was the largest congregation in the movement. The Temple strives to provide “essential values of our Jewish faith, the deeper understanding of our heritage and our future, and the involvement of our people toward the betterment of our community as a whole,” according to their website.

The congregation has long been active in civil rights and in working for fair treatment of all people, including LGBTQ+ individuals. Temple Rabbis are involved with the Fairness Campaign and have performed same-sex marriage rites since 1996, including the first same-sex marriage in the state of Israel. The congregation is welcoming and promotes acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals. This year The Temple was the only Jewish congregation in the Commonwealth that commemorated Pride month with a special Shabbat Service entitled “Creating a Welcoming Community.”

You can find out more about The Temple by visiting their website at https://www.thetemplelouky.org. Or, if you’d like to contact a Rabbi about a confidential matter, please email [email protected].

Steps LGBTQ+ Workers Can Take if they are Experiencing Discrimination in the workplace

LGBTQ+ workers are often targeted for harassment and discrimination at work. Despite cultural gains in the last twenty years or so many workers who are LGBTQ+ don’t realize that they have legal protection against discrimination and harassment at work. If you’re being victimized at work because you are LGBTQ+  you need to know that you are legally protected and don’t have to put up with harassment and discrimination by your employer or your coworkers.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects people from discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and place of birth. But the Supreme Court expanded that protection and it now also includes discrimination based on identity, orientation, and gender. Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you or to allow a hostile work environment. 

If you’re a victim of discrimination at work you can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC investigates employers after employees file complaints and also shares information with the state labor boards of 44 states so that the states can investigate any companies in their state who have a complaint filed against them. 

Examples Of Workplace Discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace can be harassment, bullying, or things like:

Being Denied Raises or Promotions

If you are always passed over for promotions or regularly scheduled raises and you suspect it’s because of your LGBTQ+ status that’s discrimination. 

Targeted Harassment 

If the people that you work with use LGBTQ+ slurs, promote offensive stereotypes, exclude you from office events, make you feel unwelcome or harass you and make offensive comments or statements that’s discrimination.  

Getting Hours Cut

If you work on an hourly basis and your schedule keeps getting cut or you keep getting put to work on the worst shifts that’s discrimination. 

Misgendering you on purpose

After you have told your colleagues and bosses what your preferred pronouns and what name you prefer if they refuse to use those pronouns or trhat name that’s discrimination.

Filing A Workplace Discrimination Claim

Keeping a record of the discrimination that you’re experiencing is very important. You will need a list of incidents that describe what happened and name the names of who was involved. Take that list to your boss or to the head of HR and explain what is going on and how it’s affecting your ability to work. Your boss or your head of HR should immediately agree that what you’re going through is awful and tell you they will stop it. If they don’t take you seriously or you get the feeling nothing is going to be done then you can go to the EEOC’s website and file a complaint. 

You can also file a complaint on the state level too. In Kentucky, you can file a discrimination complaint with the Louisville Human Relations Commission or the Kentucky Commission Human Rights. When you file a discrimination complaint on the state level in Kentucky, it will be dual filed with the EEOC, that way you don’t have to file two complaints. 

Penalties For Harassment And Discrimination

It’s a big deal for employers to get hit with a violation of the Civil Rights Act. They could pay tens of thousands of dollars per violation and face criminal charges too. If you are owed money because you lost out on a raise or promotion you could qualify for a lump sum of money for back wages. You also may be eligible for a lump sum of pain and suffering. 

Resources:

https://www.eeoc.gov/ 

https://employmentlawhelp.org/sexual-harassment/sexual-orientation-harassment 

https://www.employmentlawhelp.org/discrimination/gender/lgbtq-discrimiantion-complaint-letter 

https://louisvilleky.gov/government/human-relations-commission 

https://kchr.ky.gov/Pages/File-a-Complaint.aspx 

 

The University of Louisville wants to hear the opinions of LGBTQ+ individuals in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. We are conducting a research study to help us learn about LGBTQ+ individuals’ thoughts and experiences related to cervical cancer screening (commonly called a Pap or Pap Smear). Participation will take about 1½ hours total, and participants will receive a $20 gift card for completing an online survey and a virtual (or telephone) interview. If you are interested in participating, you may find more information and if you are eligible by following this link:

https://tinyurl.com/sgmscreening

Please share this email, the above link, and the attached flier with other LGBTQ+ individuals that may be interested in participating in this research. Information from the online surveys and interviews will be used to help develop a program that will focus on decreasing the risk of cervical cancer for LGBTQ+ people. We value your opinion and appreciate your time.

Flyer: SGM_Flyer_V1 IRB APPROVED

 

The University of Louisville wants to hear the opinions of LGBTQ+ individuals in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. We are conducting a research study to help us learn about LGBTQ+ individuals’ thoughts and experiences related to cervical cancer screening (commonly called a Pap or Pap Smear). Participation will take about 1½ hours total, and participants will receive a $20 gift card for completing an online survey and a virtual (or telephone) interview. If you are interested in participating, you may find more information and if you are eligible by following this link:

 

https://tinyurl.com/sgmscreening