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Feds Already Ban Discrimination

It is being said that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people lack protection against job and housing discrimination in West Virginia.

It isn’t true.

Members of the Wheeling Human Rights Commission have asked City Council to consider an ordinance on the rights of workers and renters who fall under the LGBT category. Council members heard from the public about that this week. A substantial number of those speaking oppose the idea.

A number of complaints about a city ordinance on the subject have been aired. Some critics of the idea worry that Wheeling could be in a unique position if the measure is adopted.

Eight other towns and cities already have similar statutes on the books. But none of them is in the same situation as Wheeling, where the Human Rights Commission has been granted enforcement power over matters involving real or alleged discrimination. Armed with an ordinance, the HRC theoretically could investigate complaints, make judgments on them — and penalize offenders, say critics of the proposal.

Understand that many of the critics are not supporters of discrimination. They agree that people should not be denied employment solely because of their sexual or gender orientation. Likewise, they should not be denied housing for that reason.

Federal officials seem to agree whole-heartedly.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states on its website that it “interprets and enforces (federal law’s) prohibition of sex discrimination as forbidding any employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. These protections apply regardless of any contrary state or local laws.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development states that “if a housing provider refuses to rent to an LGBT person because he believes the person acts in a manner that does not conform to his notion of how a person of a particular sex should act, the person may pursue the matter as a violation of the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition of sex.”

In other words, LGBT people already have the protections the HRC is seeking — from the federal government. Is there a need for the city to add to that? That’s the question City Council members have to work out, amid lots of pressure from people on both sides of the issue, during the next few weeks.

∫∫∫

Many people have become accustomed to one hand in Washington not knowing what the other is doing. But a reader who questioned some numbers I used a few weeks ago brought to light a very puzzling situation of that sort.

His question was about per capita income figures. My column stated West Virginians’ per capita income is $37,047, far behind the $47,669 for the nation as a whole.

But Census Bureau figures are far from the same, the reader noted. That agency, explaining its numbers are for per capita income during the past 12 months, in 2014 dollars, has West Virginia at $23,237 and the United States at $28,555. That’s a whopping discrepancy.

My numbers came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported per capita income for 2014-2015. WorkForce West Virginia uses the same figures.

BLS number crunchers show a couple of other interesting facts. First, West Virginia’s per capita income is 49th in the country, behind only — you guessed it — Mississippi.

Second, during 2014-15, per capita incomes in our state and nine others actually decreased by as much as 3 percent, according to the BLS.

But back to the discrepancy: The BLS website notes that its statistics came from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of the Census.

Go figure.

Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.

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