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Written by Lisa Neff
Oct 7, 2011
Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate recently introduced legislation to extend federal civil rights protections in housing and credit to individuals, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or source of income.
In the U.S. House, Jerrold Nadler and Edolphus Towns of New York and John Conyers of Michigan introduced the Housing Opportunities Made Equal or HOME Act. Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry introduced the companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
“LGBT people and families should not have to face housing discrimination at the hands of the unscrupulous or bigoted,” Nadler said. “This legislation will provide key updates to the Fair Housing Act to ensure that the law is actually protecting all Americans and guaranteeing people of any sexual orientation, gender identity, marital and familial status, and source of income the right to the housing they choose.”
“We can’t win the fight for equal housing opportunities without the HOME Act and its greater protections against housing discrimination,” Conyers added. “I am pleased to introduce this bill with my colleagues as it will further the cause of the original Fair Housing Act and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King in promoting integrated communities.”
The HOME Act would amend the Fair Housing Act by prohibiting discrimination in the sale or rental of housing, the financing of housing and in brokerage services on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income or marital status.
HOME also would amend the Fair Housing Act’s definition of “familial status” to include “anyone standing in loco parentis” of one or more individuals who are not 18 years of age, thus providing gay families with equal protection.
“These much-needed changes to the Fair Housing Act will improve our neighborhoods and expand important civil rights to those currently left out,” said Shanna L. Smith, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “This kind of discrimination runs counter to the American spirit of opportunity and instead is part of America’s dark history of senseless exclusion. We rejected this exclusion when we passed civil rights laws in the 1960s, and have routinely updated these laws when necessary. It’s necessary to do so again.”
The Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act, was enacted in 1968 shortly after King’s assassination. The act makes it is illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability or familial status and mandates that the federal government promote integrated communities.
Kerry said the HOME Act would “end discrimination that continues to hurt people.”
“Housing discrimination against LGBT Americans is wrong,” said the 2004 presidential candidate. “But today in most states there isn’t a thing you can do about it.”
