On March 31, the day before the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) marked the beginning of Fair Housing Month, Louisiana lawmakers said “no” to affording greater protections for LGBT people under state housing discrimination law.
Under current law, Louisiana protects the ability “to compete for available housing on an open, fair, and equitable basis, regardless of race, color, religion, [and] sex.” House Bill 804, introduced by Representative Jared Brossett of New Orleans, would have added to the list protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and marital status.
Unfortunately, Monday’s House committee vote ended in a 13-5 defeat of Representative Brossett’s bill.
Equality Louisiana has shown that Louisianans strongly support on the side of housing fairness:
But the opposition didn’t miss a beat. The Times-Picayune’s Laura McGaughy reported:
Kathleen Benfield, from the conservative Christian organization the American Family Association of New Orleans, also testified against the bill on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum’s Gene Mills, who she said could not make the hearing.
She said the issue presented by the bill was “to protect certain sexual practices outside of marriage” and said this isn’t a civil rights issue since sexual identity and gender expression are not “immutable” like race and “can change over time.” She also said Brossett didn’t present proof that homosexuals are being discriminated against in Louisiana.
“In my opinion, this legislation is a solution in search of a problem — that there is not a problem,” said Benfield.
Right Wing Watch has more on the American Family Association.
In other news on the fight for LGBT equality, Illinois moves toward banning sexual orientation conversion therapy while Minnesota falters on that front, and marriage equality developments continue to unfold in Michigan and Wisconsin.