FRANKFORT — A Jefferson County ordinance prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals is enforceable in the entire county, including the city of Louisville and its suburbs, the Kentucky Court of Appeals said Friday.

        The decision overturned a Jefferson Circuit Court ruling that the county's version of a “fairness ordinance” applied only to the county itself, not to its dozens of incorporated areas.

        The reversal was significant because Louisville has its own fairness ordinance, but the county's ordinance is tougher.

        The city ordinance made it illegal for employers to discriminate in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation or “gender identity.”

        The county ordinance covered housing and public accommodations as well as employment.

        On appeal, Jefferson County Fiscal Court cited a Kentucky statute that says county ordinances are to be given countywide application in most instances.

        The city countered that the statute relates to a long list of public functions but says nothing about counties legislating in the area of civil rights and discrimination. But neither does it preclude such legislating, the appeals court said.

        Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge David C. Buckingham said the state law “is applicable to the ordinances in question and allows the county ordinance to be enforced throughout the entire county.”

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