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Cities Act To Protect LGBT Citizens When States Won’t
The city council of Boise, Idaho voted this month to extend anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and public accommodations to its residents, the second city to legislate anti-bias measures in the staunchly conservative state.
In the absence of state or federal protections, cities like Boise are filling in the blanks across the nation to stand up for the LGBT community.
The hole is obvious: Federal civil rights laws protect citizens against discrimination based on national origin, race, color, religion, disability, sex and familial status. Noticeably absent from the list is any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity. If an employer wants to fire a gay employee or a restaurant chooses not to serve a lesbian couple, that’s A-OK in the eyes of Uncle Sam.
Where the federal government lies down on the job, some states have stepped up. Twenty-one states plus Washington, D.C. ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, with all but five of them also including protections for gender identity or expression.
http://blogs.lawyers.com/2012/12/cities-protect-lgbt-citizens/
