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Not in this house

Posted on May 7, 2009May 7, 2009 by Staff

By Lydia Lavelle

In Carrboro, we try to play fair with our house rules. We have this silly notion that housing opportunities should be available to everyone. Not so in the big House, where our local bill could not make it intact out of the Local Government II Committee.

Our town charter addresses housing discrimination, offering protection to persons based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Our board of aldermen wanted to update the charter to also extend protection to persons based on familial status, handicap, sexual orientation, gender identification and gender expression. Since familial status and handicap are now covered under the Fair Housing Act, this was an effort to update this provision so that it was consistent with federal law, as well as to extend this protection to others.

On four occasions, the BOA unanimously supported this bill; not one citizen wrote or spoke against this effort. Ellie Kinnaird and Verla Insko introduced the bill in their respective chambers. The first House committee to address the bill, the one mentioned above, includes Rep. Paul Stam, the House minority leader, as a vice-chair.

I attended this first committee meeting and heard Rep. Insko make an eloquent, well-reasoned argument in favor of the bill. I pointed out that 20 states, Washington, DC and over 150 municipalities have passed such laws.

Rep. Stam then started remarking about his perception of sexual orientation and gender identity. He asked how one would know if the definition that “these people” have of sexual orientation includes bestiality, and asked what you call a man who has sex with underage boys. He did not understand how a person could not know if they were a man or a woman. Again, Rep. Insko gave thoughtful and sensitive answers to his comments, noting that although this bill would apply only in Carrboro, every community has gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents, and these are our family members, co-workers and friends. Mayor Mark Chilton was also present at the second meeting to address committee concerns and stated that Carrboro simply wanted to afford equal protection to everyone. Other committee members offered comments and asked questions about the bill. Rep. Stam warned the other members that this was not just a local bill, but that every person who has rental property in Carrboro would be affected by this. Representatives from advocacy groups spoke for and against the legislation.

When all was said and done, only one member of the committee (Rep. Marvin Lucas) supported the bill with the inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The other 15 members of the committee did not. I can only surmise that this issue was too controversial for them to support.

Although I was discouraged, Rep. Insko and Mayor Chilton, who have been involved with GLBT issues in Orange County longer than I have, commented that just the fact that this topic was being discussed in a House committee meeting was progress. In the broader context, as I write, the School Violence Prevention Act (which would cover sexual orientation as well as gender identity and expression) is progressing through both the House and the Senate; this bill is another way of educating legislators about other issues that GLBT persons face.

And so, although this committee sees nothing wrong with denying housing and mortgage opportunities to people solely on the basis of who they are, or who they love, or how they express themselves, I know that I speak for many others when I say that we want to play fair in Carrboro. Someday we will be permitted to do so.

Lydia Lavelle is a member of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

1 thought on “Not in this house”

  1. John Kramer PE says:
    May 9, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    This is such a big problem in our town.

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