ARLINGTON (WBAP/KLIF)- The City of Arlington approved to add sexual orientation and gender identity to its anti-discrimination ordinances for fair housing, employment and public accommodations.
“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the City of Arlington to promote, through fair, orderly and lawful procedures, the opportunity for each person to obtain housing without regard to his/her race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, familial status, sexual orientation or gender identity,” read the ordinance.
Deejay Johannessen CEO of the LGBT Help Center in Arlington said it’s not going to magically make discrimination disappear but having this in writing is a start.
“For the very first time in our City’s History, we have put down in writing that in Arlington Texas, the American Dream City, discrimination is not ok,” said Johannessen.
He said everyone should have the right to work, play, enjoy restaurants and have access to adequate housing in Arlington.
“A person’s ability to get and maintain a job is based on your merits and hard work. Not what you look like, where you come from or who you love,” said Johannesssen.
Johannessen says the policies are better than they were before but it’s still not perfect.
“When I moved here in 1998, my then-partner and I went to an apartment down the street and we were informed that it was against policy to rent a one bedroom apartment to two people of the same gender,” he said.
The City of Arlington is working on ways and implementing policies in an effort to improve its score in an annual report that grades the 200 largest U.S. cities on LGBT-friendly local policies. in 2020, Arlington scored a 63 the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, while Fort Worth and Dallas scored 100.
