"The Arlington City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday in favor of a revised ordinance that removes "gender identity and expression" and "sexual orientation" as protected characteristics from the city's anti-discrimination policy. Until now, the rule had shielded LGBTQ+ people against "any direct or indirect exclusion, distinction, segregation, limitation, refusal, denial, or other differentiation in the treatment of a person or persons" in employment, housing, health care, and beyond."
""For months, the public was told that the September suspension of Arlington's Anti-Discrimination Chapter was necessary to protect federal grant funding," a spokesperson for the HELP Center for LGBTQ+ Health said in a statement. "That issue was fully resolved. The revised ordinance presented tonight - drafted by the City Attorney - protected every dollar of federal funds while restoring long-standing safeguards for all Arlington residents: women, men, children, minorities, veterans, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community.""
Arlington's City Council voted 5-4 to revise the city's anti-discrimination ordinance by removing "gender identity and expression" and "sexual orientation" as protected characteristics. The prior rule had protected LGBTQ+ people from direct or indirect exclusion, distinction, segregation, limitation, refusal, denial, or other differentiation in employment, housing, health care, and other areas. The clause had been temporarily suspended since August after threats from the Trump administration to revoke federal grant funding. Mayor Jim Ross and three councilmembers voted to reinstate the ordinance. Advocates noted that federal funding concerns had been resolved while long-standing safeguards for diverse residents were previously maintained.
Read at Advocate.com
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