The Impact of Utah’s 2015 LGBTQ Rights Law
How the state’s residents have pushed back against bias in housing, employment
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
More than six years
after Utah added
sexual orientation
and gender identity
as protected classes to its antidiscrimination
law and drew criticism
over the law’s already broad
religious exemptions that were expanded
in the amended law, data
from Utah’s anti-discrimination
agency show that Utahns are using
the law to resist discrimination
in employment and housing
and that the agency has likely not
adopted an expansive view of the
law’s religious exemptions.
“We are pleased to see that the
Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor
Division is investigating complaints
based on sexual orientation
and gender identity,” Clifford Rosky,
a law professor at the University of
Utah and a member of the Equality
Utah Advisory Council, wrote in
an email. “While it’s hard to generalize
based on the small numbers,
it appears that the UALD is investigating
and resolving LGBTQ-related
complaints in the same manner
it handles other types of discrimination
complaints. This is exactly
what is required by the Utah Antidiscrimination
Act — the equal
treatment of all Utahns, regardless
of race, sex, religion, disability,
sexual orientation, and gender
identity, among other traits.”
The Utah Antidiscrimination
and Labor Division (UALD), which
enforces that state’s anti-discrimination
law, has heard cases ranging
from 20 employment complaints
based on sexual orientation
and two based on gender identity in
2016 to 21 employment complaints
based on sexual orientation and 11
based on gender identity in 2021.
None of the employment complaints
in any year from 2016
through 2021 were dismissed at
the investigation stage, the earliest
stage. Mostly, the complaints in all
years were dismissed at the “investigation
stage due to lack of merit
fi nding.” That is typical of complaints
fi led with the local and state
agencies that investigate employment
Equality Utah executive director Troy Williams, standing in front of Clifford Rosky, speaks at a press
conference in 2015 after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints expressed support for an
LGBTQ anti-discrimination law.
discrimination cases and the
federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC). While
complainants believe they have
experienced discrimination, state
and federal laws require evidence
beyond a sincerely held belief.
“Sometimes things are real offenses
to an individual…that don’t end up
amounting to what is impermissible,”
said Sarah Warbelow, legal director
at the Human Rights Campaign,
the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy
group. “Every agency…is going to
dismiss complaints simply because
there is inadequate evidence.”
But the Utah employment complaints
also appear to be more
likely to settle at the “investigation
stage without merit fi nding,” at
the “investigation stage with merit
fi nding,” or to be “resolved through
other means.” From 2016 through
2020, anywhere from 30 percent to
48 percent ended with a settlement
or were “resolved through other
means.” Most of the 2021 complaints
have not been resolved.
The UALD data was released in
response to an open records request.
The employment complaints
are not public records so Gay City
News has only the number of complaints
fi led in each of the six years
and all outcomes in 2016 through
2020. That data show that employment
complaints typically involved
more than one charge with people
alleging discrimination based on
multiple protected classes.
REUTERS/JIM URQUHART
A settlement could mean the
complainant received an apology,
reinstatement in a job, or a fi nancial
award, but those records are
not public. Assuming the classic
defi nition of settlement, which
means that every party in the dispute
got something, but not necessarily
everything they wanted, the
UALD data suggest that complainants
won something.
The housing records were more
complete, with Gay City News receiving
data on complaints fi led
in 2016 through 2021, the resolutions,
and detailed histories of each
case, including the names of the
complainants and those accused of
discrimination. One housing case
indicates that the UALD has not
adopted a sweeping interpretation
of the law’s religious exemption.
In 2018, a gay man charged that
a mother and daughter who rented
rooms in two homes to formerly incarcerated
people had thrown him
out because he is gay. The rental
agreement included text that said
“Homosexuality in either gender”
was prohibited and “Any infraction
of these rules is grounds for immediate
termination of Tenancy and
deposit is forfeited.”
In their fi lings with the UALD,
the mother and daughter, who are
members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter-day Saints, or
the Mormon church, wrote that
“the agreement I had them tenants
sign was refl ective of my
POLITICS
values as an active LDS member.”
They also wrote that the “only acts
prohibited on the properties is sexual
activity between the persons of
the same sex.”
The UALD found for the man and
required the mother and daughter
to pay just over $7,200 in costs and
attorney’s fees and a $1,000 civil
penalty. They also had to complete
training on the law and produce new
rental agreements that complied
with the anti-discrimination law.
There were six housing complaints
based on sexual orientation
in 2016 and three based on gender
identity that year. There were two
housing complaints based on sexual
orientation and no complaints
based on gender identity in 2021.
The highest number of housing
complaints came in 2019, with seven
complaints based on sexual orientation
and none based on gender
identity. Like the employment complaints,
the housing complaints
tended to settle or be dismissed at
the investigation stage.
In 2008, the Mormon church
was the driving force behind
passing Prop. 8, a California ballot
initiative that barred the state
from issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples. The outcry from
the LGBTQ community was swift
and loud across the country. The
church was already facing slowing
membership growth and an
increase in members who are more
liberal. The church began conversations
with Equality Utah, the
state’s LGBTQ group, soon after
2008, according to a video titled
“How Utah Passed LGBTQ & Religious
Freedom Legislation” that
was released at a December 2021
webinar sponsored by the Bipartisan
Policy Center, a think tank in
Washington, DC.
The meetings that began after
2008 eventually led the church
to agree to add sexual orientation
and gender identity to Utah’s antidiscrimination
law in 2015. The
protections for LGBTQ Utahns bar
discrimination in employment and
housing, but not public accommodations.
The amended law expanded
the religious exemptions.
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