This is one in a series of profiles marking the 60th anniversary of the ACLU of Kentucky’s founding. Each week through December 2015 we will highlight the story of one member, client, case, board or staff member that has been an integral part of our organization’s rich history.
Keith Elston
“The ACLU stood up for the rights of the LGBT community earlier than any organization in the country, so I’ve always felt like they’ve had my back.” -- Keith Elston
Attorney Keith Elston has served the ACLU on multiple levels throughout the years, as a chapter leader in central Kentucky and as board president. And for a few years he left Kentucky to become the executive director of the ACLU of the Dakotas.
One of Elston’s proudest accomplishments with the ACLU of Kentucky is a continuing education program he developed for teachers based on Section II of the Kentucky Constitution. That section reads: “Absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority.” This declaration of individual liberty was used in the ACLU of Kentucky case Commonwealth v. Wasson, striking down Kentucky’s sodomy statute, a case on which Elston served as a paralegal.
The program was highly praised by participating local judges, professors and teachers. The public presentation of the program was introduced by Dr. Thomas Clark, the famous Kentucky historian.
During his tenure, the central Kentucky chapter went on to develop a quarterly series of town hall meetings that allowed for an analysis of important civil liberties issues, while also welcoming audience participation.
Elston was also a founding member of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, and in 2014, he founded the Kentucky Youth Law Project to provide free legal representation and advocacy for LGBT youth in Kentucky.