• Discrimination > Housing & Public Accommodations

WASHINGTON, DC – National Center for Lesbian Rights today hails the quick issuance of guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which clarifies that the federal Fair Housing Act fully protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination.  

“Homelessness and housing insecurity are critical issues for many LGBTQ people – particularly transgender individuals who often face serious bias and barriers to finding safe and secure housing. This guidance makes clear that federal law prevents federally funded shelters from turning people away because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as addressing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in all other areas of federal housing law.”  

Shannon Minter, NCLR Legal Director

The guidance comes just weeks after President Biden’s historic executive order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which directed all federal agencies to implement the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County that federal sex discrimination law prohibits discrimination against  LGBTQ people.

The announcement by HUD also follows the December 2020 settlement of a discrimination case brought against a senior housing community by a lesbian couple in Missouri. NCLR served as co-counsel in the Walsh v. Friendship Village of South County, along with Relman Colfax PLLC,  St. Louis LGBTQ civil rights attorney Arlene Zarembka, and the ACLU of Missouri. The case was the first successful resolution of a housing discrimination case against LGBTQ individuals since the historic Bostock v. Clayton County ruling in June 2020.

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The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national legal organization committed to advancing the human and civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Since its founding, NCLR has maintained a longstanding commitment to racial and economic justice and the LGBTQ community’s most vulnerable. https://www.nclrights.org