Wednesday, September 28, 2011
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
A group of state lawmakers has renewed its push to ban employment and housing discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation.
Democrats and one Republican in the Ohio House and Senate reintroduced the legislation Tuesday, with hopes that the bill will receive more favorable consideration than it has in past sessions.
House Bill 335, titled the Equal Housing and Employment Act, would prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, similar to protections already in place for age, race and religious affiliation.
“In most places in Ohio, a gay man can be fired just for being gay,” said Ed Mullen, executive director of Equality Ohio. “A lesbian couple can be denied the right to rent an apartment just because they are lesbians. And a transgender person can be denied service in a restaurant just because they are transgender. This is not an Ohio where everyone feels at home. This is not the Ohio we envision.”
Proponents say more than 20 other states have comparable bans on discrimination in place. Numerous Ohio cities, counties and private employers have adopted similar policies, as well, including the Ohio House and Senate.
“Ohio can no longer afford to drive away the talented work force of tomorrow by not enacting this legislation,” Rep. Ross McGregor, a Republican from Springfield who is co-sponsoring the legislation, said in a released statement. “… By enacting HB 335, we are saying that Ohio is a place where everyone can live and work free of discrimination.”
Comparable bills have been introduced in past general assemblies but have passed on only one occasion — the House OK’d the bill in 2009.
But the chamber was controlled by Democrats at the time, and the bill died in the solidly Republican Ohio Senate. Many Republicans at that time objected to the bill for moral reasons or voiced concern that it would increase costs to businesses.