New HUD Rule Delivers for LGBT Americans

[Felix]

American Civil Liberties Union News and Information (blog)
Ian Thompson, Washington Legislative Office
http://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/new-hud-rule-delivers-lgbt-americans

Of critical importance, the rule will require all organizations that operate HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing facilities to serve LGBT Americans looking for shelter and housing—including religious organizations.

[Felix]

This is an especially sensitive issue for me, as I've been on and off HUD lists for more than a decade, and part of my delaying coming out of the closet was fear of losing the help I have in providing for my kid. Managed housing situations are often staffed by undereducated and conservative people, and they are very often rigid in their views about what their client families should look like. We need safeguards and channels we can work through when there's LGBT-related conflict.

[Jamie D]

In cases like this I am always worried about the "law of unintended consequences."

Of critical importance, the rule will require all organizations that operate HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing facilities to serve LGBT Americans looking for shelter and housing—including religious organizations. As a coalition of more than 30 civil rights organizations (including the ACLU) wrote to HUD last year, once a religious organization chooses to provide housing services or programs with the aid of federal funds and benefits from HUD, it cannot shield itself from traditional safeguards that protect civil rights in the provision of those services. Those religious organizations that provide wholly private housing services will be unaffected by this new rule.