Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, applauded the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed new rules on Equal Access to Housing for LGBT persons.  The new regulations would prohibit FHA-insured lenders and owners and managers of HUD-assisted properties from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and ban discrimination against LGBT and other families.  Nadler, a longtime advocate for the LGBT community, is the lead sponsor of the HOME Act, which would extend critical federal civil rights protections to individuals, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or source of income.

He issued the following statement:

“I am very pleased that HUD is taking this important step toward protecting the LGBT community from housing discrimination.  For far too long, housing discrimination against LGBT Americans has been tolerated or ignored, and these new regulations will advance our efforts to reject prejudice in the housing market.  I congratulate President Obama and Secretary Donovan for leading by example and ensuring that their own programs – including mortgage insurance and federally-assisted housing – are available to all, without consideration of sexual orientation or gender identity.  I also welcome the Administration’s more inclusive and expansive view of what defines an American ‘family,’ an essential development when so many stable American families appear superficially different from what were once considered ‘traditional’ families.

“The ability of all Americans to find and secure safe and affordable housing is especially critical today, as we continue as a nation to struggle with a major recession.  In order to further codify into law the prohibition against discrimination in housing, I will soon re-introduce the HOME Act.  This critical legislation would amend the Fair Housing Act to ensure that the law in fact protects ALL Americans and guarantees people of any sexual orientation, gender identity, marital and familial status, and source of income the right to the housing they choose.”

The Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Act, which Nadler will soon re-introduce, would amend the Fair Housing Act by prohibiting discrimination in the sale or rental of housing, the financing of housing, and in brokerage services on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, or marital status.  The Act would also amend the Fair Housing Act’s definition of “familial status” in order to more accurately reflect contemporary families – expanding the term to include “anyone standing in loco parentis” of one or more individuals who are not 18 years of age, and protecting all families equally.

The Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act, has protected people living in America from housing discrimination since 1968, when it passed in the immediate aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.  Under the Act, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, or familial status.