It’s coming down to that time in the semester when trillions of assignments from all classes are due on the same day, and every student’s anxiety levels reach a critical high while they search for new housing for the upcoming year.
There was a small glimmer of hope for the LGBT community in this last regard, as HB 804 aimed to prohibit housing discrimination from private owners on the basis of sexual orientation.
But Louisiana lawmakers squashed that hope like a caterpillar crushed on the way to spring finals.
While life isn’t getting worse but rather staying the same, there is nothing stopping the owner of Highland Plantation from denying a student’s lease application if he considers him or her not straight enough to live there, and that is unacceptable.
It’s 2014; places like the United Kingdom have shown their support for equality by legalizing same-sex marriages.
Even Texas — one of the most conservative states in the nation – took a smaller step toward equality, striking down the state ban on gay marriage in February.
But here we are shutting down laws that would make it illegal for one group of humans to discriminate against another group of humans.
How is that asking too much?
The fact that the House even discussed — and rejected — what should be an unnamed right for every person in the state is astounding.
Discrimination shouldn’t be a word in our vocabularies at all at this point, and the fact that it’s still legal in Louisiana is a major disappointment.
Opponents of this bill probably had the same argument as the supporters of Arizona’s “anti-gay” bill last month. “You can’t tell me it’s illegal for me to not allow someone I don’t like in my house.” And in a way they’re right.
A person has the right to discriminate in the privacy of his or her own home, and that is the American way. However, as in the case of the Arizona bill, this bill was not aimed at people’s homes.
The bill would’ve applied to large businesses and landowners with three or more units.
The bill in no way intended to force conservative people into letting gay people into their guest rooms, it simply aimed to make it illegal for a person, like a college student, to be rejected from signing a lease because of his or her sexual orientation.
How are those two things different?
When a person buys another house, a place they don’t intend to live in, and keep it for renting purposes, they are doing so for the purpose of making a profit. This doesn’t make the house a place of business, but it does turn it into a business venture.
If the ultimate goal of having another house is to make money, why does it matter who the tenant is attracted to as long as they continue signing the checks every month?
It’s not an issue of trust because a woman doesn’t become less trustworthy simply because she wants to marry another woman. It’s an issue of discrimination and bigotry.
Following the bill’s rejection, the advocacy group Equality Louisiana released a hopeful statement to the press in which the authors said that even though this bill failed, there is still hope for fair housing legislation in this legislative session, and I hope they don’t give up.
I keep saying that Louisiana has deep-rooted issues when it comes to situations that aren’t considered ordinary, and even if it takes a long time, I believe the group will be able to catch the state up to modern thinking.
Hopefully the state will catch up soon.