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Virginia Senate committee kills housing bill, defers workplace protections bill

Virginia Senate committee kills housing bill, defers workplace protections bill
Virginia state capitol in Richmond.
Virginia state capitol in Richmond. Wikimedia

RICHMOND, Va. — It’s still legal to deny housing to LGBT Virginians after a Senate committee on Monday failed to advance legislation amid concerns that a fair housing bill would violate religious freedoms, while delaying another bill until next week that would protect LGBT workers in public employment.

The fair housing bill (SB 917), which would have prohibited housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, was met with a tie vote by the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology, but not deferred to a later hearing.

“A person’s sexual orientation and gender identity has nothing to do with if they’ll be a good tenant or neighbor, it has nothing to do with if they’ll pay their rent,” said Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D-Leesburg), before opening the floor for public comment.

“Those are really the factors that should go into housing decisions. We need to make Virginia a welcoming place… and as it is now, we’re behind the curve on this,” she said.

Public comment came quick, with opposing voices often pointing to concerns of religious liberty being violated if the bill was passed.

Jeff Caruso with the Virginia Catholic Conference expressed concerns that the bill would apply to private entities, including faith-based companies.

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“Given the diversity of views among different faith based organizations on marriage, each one of those organizations should have the ability to make decisions in accord with their beliefs about marriage and some organizations believe marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman,” said Jeff Caruso of the Virginia Catholic Conference, expressing concern that the bill would apply to private entities and faith-based companies.

Chris Freund of the Virginia Christian group The Family Foundation, said there is a conflict between religious freedom and sexual liberty being fought in America’s legislative halls, and that the Senators were he “last line of defense” for religious freedom.

“You’re seeing businesses that don’t want to participate in a same-sex marriage being forced to by government,” he said.

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Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Executive Director of the Virginia ACLU, spoke in support of the fair housing bill and tried to clarify the repeated argument about the bill conflicting with constitutional protected rights.

“Freedom of religion is extremely important,” said Gastañaga. “But it is not a license to discriminate.”

According to a nationwide study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, same-sex couples experienced discrimination 16 percent of the time when seeking rental housing.

And the National Center for Transgender Equality found that one in five transgender people in the U.S. have been refused housing, and more than one in ten have been evicted because of their gender identity.

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While the housing bill is considered dead, it remains in committee and could also be revived if a committee member who voted against the bill were to make a motion to reconsider it at a future date.

A second bill that would protect Virginia’s LGBT public employees was also met with a 7-7 tie vote, but was deferred to a future meeting next Monday.

The workplace bill (SB 785) would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in Virginia’s public workforce, which applies to state and local municipal workers.

“Virginia’s leading employers all include sexual orientation when protecting their employees,” said Equality Virginia’s Executive Director James Parrish. “We think the state should set an example by doing the same thing.”

The committee is also expected to consider a third bill next Monday to revise gender-specific terms in the Code of Virginia to reflect the rights and responsibilities of same-sex married couples.

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