Norman sets bar for LGBTQ protection; OKC up next

Following the unanimous adoption of LGBT rights protections in Norman December 22, Oklahoma City is the next city in the state to consider LGBT protections. At the City Council meeting Tuesday, January 5, city lawmakers will consider an amendment to the Human Rights Ordinance to prohibit discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Norman resolution updates Norman’s discrimination policy, which was passed in 1986. The action by the Norman council added sexual orientation and gender identity to those categories.

Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson praised the Norman council action, saying, “We’d been working on it for a year, so we were confident going in. It’s a great start for the state of Oklahoma. It’s a real challenge to other municipalities in Oklahoma.

“This can be done, and it should be done. Someone had to go first. I think Norman set the bar high for the other cities.” He also pointed out that Norman has a Human Rights Commission.”

“It was the City of Norman’s Human Rights Commission that brought the issue to the council’s attention. The group meets quarterly and advocates for fair employment and economic and social rights of citizens,” according to the Oklahoma Gazette.

“Following the Human Rights Commission’s October meeting, city attorneys drafted a resolution to update code to include LGBT protections. Stevenson attended the October meeting and the council’s December 8 conference, where the issue was introduced. From his experience, successful implementation and enforcement of LGBT protections often begins with a human rights commission, which works to prevent and eliminate discrimination.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2015 Municipal Equality Index (MEI) Scorecard, Lawton, Norman, and Tulsa have Human Rights Commissions.

“’This exact process wouldn’t be possible in Oklahoma City because there is no human rights commission,’ Stevenson said. ‘ There is a lot of work to be done.’”

Stevenson told The Gayly, “Because Norman has a Human Rights Commission, it was easy to expand the ordinance by adopting the federal definition of ‘sex’ which includes gender identity and sexual orientation as well as gender.”

The Norman action was possible “Because there is an administrative body that could take that into consideration. Oklahoma City refers all of its discrimination cases to the state Attorney General’s office. They have since the dissolution of the Human Rights Commission in the 1990’s.

Oklahoma City once had a Human Rights Commission. According to the Gazette, it was reestablished in 1988, “after a burning cross was erected on the property of a northeast OKC church and local Jewish temples were vandalized with graffiti, according to 1990s-era news reports.

“In the mid-1990s, the [Commission] was met with resistance when it advocated for recognizing protection of sexual orientation. In January 1996, the Oklahoma City Council abolished the commission,” said the Gazette.

“To my knowledge,” he added, “Oklahoma City is the only city of its size in the nation without a Human Rights Commission.”

Oklahoma City has an ordinance protecting employment of LGBT persons by the city, but has no general LGBT non-discrimination protections. The city received 29 points (out of 100 possible) on HRC’s 2015 MEI Scorecard, although 12 of those points were because the city reported hate crimes statistics to the FBI. Norman’s score is 43, Tulsa’s is 35. Stevenson said, “I think there is support on the Council for LGBT protections, majority support, but we’re still talking about what that is going to look like.”

Tulsa passed housing protections similar to those proposed for Oklahoma City on April 16, 2015. The Tulsa World reported the next day that the Tulsa City Council unanimously passed the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of cases protected under that city’s fair housing policy.

The Gazette, reporting on the proposed ordinance, says, “Proposed changes would reflect protections provided under the federal Fair Housing Act, enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Requested by the city’s planning department, adoption would qualify the city for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants.”

Stevenson said getting a Human Rights Commission reauthorized “is going to be a harder sell. Not because there’s not a will to do it, but there is a fiscal impact. It would cost money to staff it. But we have every intention of pushing for one, and expect that we will get one. But this is the very beginning of that conversation.”

“It would give us a body of arbitration that would look at each of these cases that came before them, and would advocate on behalf of the citizen. At the moment it’s an abdication of municipal responsibility to forward all discrimination cases to the state.

“Can you imagine if the state of Oklahoma forwarded all cases of discrimination to the Federal government? That’s essentially what the city government is doing. What’s the point of having a city government if they aren’t going to advocate on behalf of the residents of the city.

“This is the beginning of a conversation. We’re hopeful that housing protections will be passed on Tuesday, but we look forward to a time when all residents of Oklahoma City are protected from discrimination in employment, housing and public spaces,” Stevenson concluded.

The proposed amendment to the Oklahoma City Human Rights Ordinance would put in protections against discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposal also adds protections based on age, familial status, and disability. The law currently protects against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, creed, ancestry or national origin.

The protections for the revised list of affected classes include:

Protection against financial institution discrimination;

Prohibitions against property owners, real estate brokers, salesmen or agents refusal to sell, lease, rent, assign or otherwise transfer the title of real property;

Prohibitions against refusal to negotiate for the sale, rental or leasing of residential property;

Prohibitions against soliciting or inducing people to sell based on protected classes moving into the area (a tactic used in the 1960’s and 70’s to promote “white flight,” and the sale of affected properties at depressed values).

In addition, the proposal adds a reference to state law regarding discrimination in housing, and incorporates the current and future provisions of that law into the city’s code. An examination of the state law revealed only one reference to “sexual orientation or the sexual preference of the individual or because that individual is a transvestite (sic).” The reference said that those categories could not be used to claim protection of a disability.

The period for filing complaints under the ordinance is expanded, and the process simplified.

The Oklahoma City Council meeting is at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 5, in the Municipal Building, 200 N. Walker Ave. (N. Walker at Couch Drive), in downtown Oklahoma City. Stevenson urges supporters to attend the meeting, and to wear red to show solidarity for the community.

The Gayly – January 2, 2016 @ 8:30 p.m.