Cincinnati mulls anti-discrimination protections for ‘gender expression’
Cincinnati could soon add anti-discrimination protections for “gender expression” and and women who breastfeed in public.
The city’s anti-discrimination law already has protections for transgender people. But under the proposed changes, the law specifically forbids discrimination based on “gender expression,” which is defined in the bill as how a person expresses themselves through “one’s behavior or appearance, that may or may not be those traditionally associated with the individual’s assigned sex at birth.”
Businesses, employers and landlords would be among those subject to the new rules
Councilmembers Reggie Harris and Victoria Parks, both Democrats, are proposing the tweaks to the city’s antidiscrimination law forward.
Council could vote on the measures as soon as Wednesday.
“Fundamentally we are a rule-abiding society,” Harris said. “It really does make a difference when there are laws on the books that shape people and business’ behavior. So it is important the anti-discrimination code be up to date.”
Harris said changes would bring city law in line with proposed federal and state equality acts, which would protect LGBTQ people against discrimination in employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, government-funded programs, and jury service. Neither Ohio nor the U.S. has passed such a law.
Cincinnati is not the first city to add such protections. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations, but Ohio is not one of them.
Over the last eight years Cincinnati has been heralded as one of the most welcoming cities for the LGBTQ community.
Harris said he wants that to continue and fears state laws like House Bill 616, which would ban instruction and materials about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through 3rd grade in all public and most private schools, will turn people away from Ohio. “We want to grow,” Harris said. Parks wanted to add breastfeeding to the law. There’s been no breastfeeding discrimination incident in Cincinnati that she knows of, but she said she had she has, in everyday life, seen women shamed over breastfeeding.
“This is in line with equity and common sense,” Parks said. “There’s no
fireworks, but let a woman be a woman.”
All discrimination laws are punishable with a fine. The city investigates complaints. If probable cause is found, a fine of $100 per day up to a total of $1,000 could be levied until the practice ends.
Violators would be subject to fines. Eventually, if the person or business fined does not comply with the law, the city can filed a misdemeanor criminal case in the matter.
The councilmembers’ proposal specifically adds military status, pregnancy and familial status to the protected classes.
It also would:
● Eliminate all housing discrimination exemptions. Currently landlords with four or fewer tenants don’t have to comply with housing discrimination laws.
● Strengthen protections for employees of small businesses by reducing the number of exempt employers from anti-discrimination law to those with 10 employees to those with four.
● Remove exemptions for religious institutions hosting public events. Religious gatherings would still be exempt from anti-discrimination laws, but those exemptions would be eliminated whenever a religious organization hosts an event open to the community.