IFHC acknowledges Pride Month as a celebration of our LGBTQ+ community and also as the ongoing protest for equality. 

Pride began as a protest in 1969, and is ongoing. Not all members of our community are treated equally. Fifty-two years after the Stonewall Riots, queer individuals are reporting being denied housing due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as experiencing discrimination from landlords, property management, and fellow tenants.

Fair Housing Act Protections Include Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

HUD’s Equal Access Rule requires equal access to HUD housing programs without regard to a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.

Know Your Rights Under the Fair Housing Act and HUD’s Equal Access Rule:

• It is prohibited under the Fair Housing Act for any landlord or housing provider to discriminate against LGBTQ persons because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity or any other reason that constitutes sex based discrimination.
• It is unlawful for a landlord or housing provider of a covered dwelling to deny housing because of actual or perceived HIV/AIDS status under the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• It is prohibited for a lender to deny an HUD-insured mortgage to any qualified applicant based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
• Under the Equal Access Rule, HUD-funded homeless providers must place clients in a shelter or facility that corresponds to the gender with which the person identifies, taking health and safety concerns into consideration. Providers must also ensure that their policies do not isolate or segregate clients based upon gender identity.

Significantly Higher Rate of LGBTQ+ Youth

In Homeless Populations

Queer youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness.They are also at greater risk for experiencing high levels of hardship, including higher rates of assault, trauma, exchanging sex for basic needs, and early death. Black LGBTQ youth, especially young men, have the highest rates of homelessness. Youth who are black and LGBTQ reported the highest rates of homelessness. Four time higher than LGBTQ youth who are white.

Resources for Homeless LGBTQ Individuals in Crisis:

Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center (RHYTTAC) RHYTTAC staff come from RHY services and understand the challenges programs face in striving to achieve the best possible outcomes in the midst of staff turnover, community change and ever-emerging needs of the RHY population.

National Runaway Safeline (NRS) provides education and solution-focused interventions, offers non-sectarian, non-judgmental support, respects confidentiality, collaborates with volunteers, and responds to at-risk youth and their families. The organization serves as the federally designated national communication system for runaway and homeless youth. 

Safe Place is a national youth outreach and prevention program for young people in need of immediate help and safety. As a community-based program, Safe Place designates businesses and organizations as Safe Place locations, making help readily available to youth in communities across the country. Locations include: libraries, YMCA’s fire stations, public buses, various businesses, and social service facilities.

The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people ages 13-24.

... tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia.

On June 12, 1967, The Supreme Court of the United States issued a historic opinion on the case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state bans on interracial marriage once and for all.

This case was pivotal to the affirmative furthering of Fair Housing in the United States because it ensured every citizen the right to cohabitate with their spouse or partner, regardless of race. At the time, plaintiff Richard Loving famously said to his attorney, Barnard S. Cohen, "Mr. Cohen, tell the Court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia.”

The HOLC Launches the Practice of Redlining

Almost ninety years ago, a federal agency called the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), created “Residential Security” maps of major American cities that guided how mortgage lending risk were to be evaluated.

Neighborhoods made up of predominantly non-white residents were designated as high risk or “Hazardous” and were often “redlined” by lending institutions, therefore denying them access to capital investment that could have improved the housing and economic opportunity of the community.

The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under an award with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government.