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• Extends Fairfax County’s anti-discrimination protections currently provided based on race, color, religion, sex, national, origin, disability, marital status, age, and familial status (in housing) to sexual orientation.  Thus, the proposal extends nondiscriminatory practices - not special rights - to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered persons, and heterosexuals.
  
  
• Prohibits employers, employment agencies, and labor unions from using an individual’s sexual orientation as the basis for employment decisions, such as hiring, firing, promotion, or compensation.
  
  
• Prohibits real estate brokers and sales persons, rental agents, and other person from using an individual’s sexual orientation as the basis for housing decisions, such as sales or rentals of housing, representations of unavailability, or eviction.
  
  
• Prohibits public accommodations from using an individual’s sexual orientation as the basis for denying access, benefits, or enjoyment of goods, services, or facilities.
  
  
• Prohibits lending institutions from using an individual’s sexual orientation as the basis for denying, terminating, or otherwise discriminating in the furnishing of credit or credit related services.
  
  
• Prohibits educational institutions from using an individual’s sexual orientation as the basis for discriminating in the terms, conditions, or services of that institution.
  
  
• Prohibits retaliation against a person because they have opposed such discriminatory practices.
  
  
• Provides for the same procedures and remedies as are currently available for discrimination against other protected classes.

• Does not impose quotas based on sexual orientation.
• Does not cover any businesses that are not already subject to the Human Rights Ordinance.
  
  
• Does not prohibit religious organizations from limiting or giving preference in real estate transactions to person of the same religion or denomination or to make a selection of applicants or individual where such preference is reasonably calculated to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained.
  
  
• Does not prohibit educational institutions from limiting admission or giving preference to persons of the same religion or denomination as the educational institution or to make a selection of applicants or individuals that is reasonably calculated to promote the religious principles for which it is established and maintained.

• Builds support for human rights in Fairfax County.  Adding sexual orientation as a prohibited basis will bring new constituencies of support to the Human Rights Ordinance.  FACE proposal would extend protections to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered persons, as well as heterosexuals.  Thus, the proposal would apply to everyone in the County, not just one particular group.
  
  

While the process of amending a human rights ordinance can be controversial, in all its research on this issue FACE has found no reported instance in which a community chose to repeal or cut funding for enforcement of an existing human rights act because of efforts to add sexual orientation protections.  Indeed, because sexual orientation cuts across lines of race, sex, religion, and other characteristics currently covered by the Ordinance, adding sexual orientation as a prohibited basis will extend protection to people who may not see themselves as beneficiaries of the current Human Rights Ordinance.  It will give a larger share of the community a direct stake in the Ordinance’s continued enforcement.


• Prevents circumvention of existing human rights protections.  The omission of sexual orientation as a prohibited basis of discrimination creates a legal loophole for perpetrators of discrimination.  It enables them to defend actions that discriminate on a basis prohibited by the Ordinance by asserting that the reason for an adverse action was on the non-prohibited basis of sexual orientation.  Thus, adding sexual orientation to the Ordinance would actually strengthen the Commission’s ability to enforce existing protections.
  
  

This loophole was clearly demonstrated in the Fairfax County Human Rights Commission’s decision in Solon v. Falls Church Children’s House of Montessori, HRC No. 96022E (September 17, 1997).  In that case, the respondent was accused of denying employment based on religion.  The Commission found that the plaintiff was denied employment because of her advocacy on issues related to the rights of gays and lesbians.  However, the Commission found that the respondent did not deny the plaintiff employment based on religion, even though her advocacy emanated from her religious beliefs, on the technicality that plaintiff never conveyed the religious nature of her advocacy to her potential employer.  The Commission’s decision leads to the conclusion that had the Ordinance prohibited sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation against those who assist others in securing this right, the outcome would have been different.


• Combats hate violence.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which collects statistics on hate crimes throughout the United States, reported that in 1996 more than 1,200 criminal offenses were based on sexual orientation bias, a figure representing close to 12 percent of the total number of hate crimes reported.  See Federal Bureau of Investigation, Press Release:  Crime in the United States 1996 (visited Jan. 21,1998).  In Virginia alone there were 55 incidents involving 60 offenders and 57 victims; four of these incidents resulted in injury or death to the victim.  See Virginians for Justice & National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, Anti-Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Violence in 1996 (1997).
  
  

Without any anti-discrimination ordinance in place, Fairfax County’s gays and lesbians may not only be more likely targets of hate crimes, but also will be reluctant to report these crimes for fear that disclosure of their sexual orientation will lead to adverse employment and housing actions.  This underreporting hurts the County’s ability to protect against and punish attacks on its citizens.  This is not mere speculation  - the same men targeted in the recent hate crime in the Fort Hunt area had been verbally attacked at their home over the past year, but did not report it.  One of the victims continues to remain anonymous for job-related reasons.


• Furthers economic development.  Virtually all the other jurisdictions in the area, including Arlington County and Alexandria City, already protect their citizens against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and Falls Church City prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in city employment and contracting.  Fairfax County’s failure to keep pace contributes to its reputation as hostile territory for gays and lesbians.  Particularly given the current shortage of high-tech workers, it is imperative to the County’s continued prosperity that the Commission work to make Fairfax an inclusive and welcoming community in which to live and work and a place where the basic civil rights of all citizens is protected.

FACE is a non-partisan, non-sectarian coalition that welcomes as members all individuals and organizations sharing this commitment.