Despite its contentious legacy on racial discrimination, Greensboro, North Carolina hopes to nudge the dial forward on LGBT equality tonight when the City Council votes on several new anti-discrimination ordinances. “The proposed changes in Greensboro include adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to a list of enumerated categories in three ordinances — fair housing, city employment and city services,” reports qnotes’ editor Matt Comer.
North Carolina, once seen as a beacon of hope for Democratic strategists and a model for moderate Southern politics, has made a neck-snapping turn to the right in recent years. But local communities like Greensboro and, to some extent Charlotte, are grappling with local issues where success codifying anti-discrimination laws seems more likely.
“The City of Greensboro prides itself on being open and inclusive for all residents and the changes proposed for Council consideration are designed to further strengthen the City’s efforts to prohibit discrimination,” Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said in a statement to qnotes on Monday. “I believe these changes not only continue to protect our current and future employees, but also take the extra step of acknowledging and protecting the civil rights of our residents and business owners who participate in City programs and receive City services.”
The first of the three changes will prohibit discrimination in city services, programs and activities. The second would codify LGBT-inclusive protections for city employees in the city’s ordinances. (By policy, Greensboro already prohibits public employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, notes Comer.)
The last of the three ordinances would alter the city’s fair housing ordinance thus prohibiting discrimination in the “buying, renting, selling or advertising of real estate.”
And according to qnotes: “The city attorney’s memo says the fair housing changes are consistent with new regulations suggested by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “The City receives federal grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to enforce the City’s Fair Housing Ordinance and this amendment is supported by this agency,” Carruthers’ memo reads. “If approved by Council, HUD will review this amendment. HUD approval is expected; given these amendments align with HUD suggestions.”
Greensboro, a moderately-sized city in north central North Carolina, is home to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. The museum now sits on the spot of a former Woolworth’s where four black college students refused to leave the then-racially segregated lunch counter. Several months later and several hundred sit-in protestors after, Woolworth’s dropped its ban on racially segregated lunch counters.
