NewLegalProtections 6

3.PresidentBiden's ExecutiveOrder

2021 President Biden issued EO 13988 directing federal agencies to explicitly address discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, consistent with the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock.

4.ExpansionofHUD's EqualAccessRule

2021 The Dept of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) released a memo expanding the Equal Access Rule, which had originally been created in 2012. HUD declared that all individuals have equal access to all HUD programs, including HUD-funded or HUDinsured housing and HUD-funded temporary shelters, regardless of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.

RightsRolledBack: 303Creativev.Elenis

In June 2023, the U S Supreme Court upheldtherightofa websitedesignerto discriminateagainstsame-sex couples

The Court ruled that public accommodations laws, which are aimed at addressing inequality in the public market, are unconstitutional if they would overly restrict a business owner's right to free speech

HistoricalContext:

"Transvestite"ExclusionfromtheFHA

In 1988, the Fair Housing Act was amended to explicitly exclude trans people from the law's protections. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina was worried that new disability protections could be interpreted to also outlaw antitransgender discrimination, specifically arguing that “moral problems” such as “transvestism”mustbeclearlydistinguishedfromtheterm“handicap”.

Because the Fair Housing Act never mentioned trans people in its list of protected classes, Helms’s advocacy for a narrow interpretation of “handicap” effectively meant that there would be no alternative route for transgender people to obtain protections under the FHA. By a vote of 89-2, Sen. Helms's anti-trans campaign was successful, and his amendment to the FHA made trans people the firstgroup toeverbeexplicitlyexcludedfromanyfederalanti-discriminationstatute.

The federal government and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development now havearesponsibilitytotakeaffirmativesteps to right this historic and prejudicial wrong,includingearmarkingfundsfortranshousinginitiativesandenforcement.