The Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) is charting a new course that contrasts with the Trump administration’s effort to prevent men from being housed in spaces with vulnerable women. The agency posted guidelines that encourage self-described transgender individuals to seek relief for discrimination based on “gender identity.”
The updated federal website states:
The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. A person who identifies as LGBTQ who has experienced (or is about to experience) discrimination under any of these bases may file a complaint with HUD. HUD is committed to investigating violations of the Fair Housing Act against all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The website gives examples of what discrimination looks like:
- A transgender woman is asked by the owner of her apartment building not to dress in women’s clothing in the common areas of the property. This may violate the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition against sex discrimination, which includes discrimination based on non-conformity with gender stereotypes.
- A gay man is evicted because his landlord believes he will infect other tenants with HIV/AIDS. This may violate the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition against disability discrimination, which includes discrimination against people who have or are perceived to have HIV/AIDS.
The undated press release also explains how home loan lenders can discriminate against people because of their perceived lifestyle, such as two men applying for a loan who are rejected because they are thought to be gay.
“This may violate HUD’s Equal Access Rule, which prohibits FHA-insured lenders from taking actual or perceived sexual orientation into consideration in determining adequacy of an applicant’s income,” the website states.
The shift under President Joe Biden is significant as former President Donald Trump and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson embraced natural law, including a person’s sex, in their policies.
For example, Trump and Carson provided safe single-sex spaces for women in such places as prisons and homeless shelters.
Yahoo News reported on another fast-paced Biden takeover of the federal government:
The Department of Housing and Urban Development will begin investigating complaints of housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity under the Fair Housing Act, in a pointed reversal of Trump administration policy.
The new policy, to be announced Thursday, applies to all complaints filed after Jan. 20, 2020 — one year before President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing agencies to “prevent and combat” such discrimination.The directive requires state and local jurisdictions that receive funding through HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program “to prohibit discrimination because of gender identity and sexual orientation.”
The agency cited the Supreme Court’s ruling last June that gender identity and sexual orientation are protected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination on the basis of sex. A senior HUD official told reporters Wednesday that the agency believes a “significant” share of fair housing complaints it receives involve sexual orientation or gender identity.
Biden has nominated Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) to be HUD Secretary.
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