LGBT individuals are entitled to live free from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. San Francisco has a long history of protecting and promoting the rights of LGBT individuals. San Francisco is also a city open to the free expression and protection of religious views of all kinds.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, recognizing the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, states have enacted laws aimed at reducing the legal protections for the LGBT community. In March 2016, North Carolina passed a law nullifying municipal anti-discrimination protections for LGBT individuals in the state. Under the North Carolina law, any existing local LGBT anti-discrimination measure is unenforceable, as would be any future measure adopted by a local government. The law also discriminates against transgender people by requiring them to use public bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex rather than their gender identity. Other states, are considering similar laws. In April 2016, Mississippi enacted a law that would permit discrimination against LGBT individuals if the person choosing to treat LGBT individuals differently claims that the disparate treatment is based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Such laws have been proposed in other states. The City and County of San Francisco does not support discrimination against LGBT individuals under any circumstances, including when such discrimination is based on religion.
The Board of Supervisors finds that the City should not require its employees, many of whom are LGBT individuals, to be subjected to these discriminatory laws while traveling on City business. No individual, and certainly no employee of the City while conducting City business, should suffer the indignity of being denied services on the basis of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The City and the country have moved in the direction of granting more rights and more protections to LGBT individuals. These new laws represent an affront to progress and to the recognition that the LGBT community is entitled to equal treatment under the law.
(Former Sec. 12X.1 was added by Ord. 297-06, File No. 061295, App. 11/29/2006; renumbered as Sec. 96B.1 by Ord. 189-16, File No. 160425, App. 10/14/2016, Eff. 11/13/2016, Oper. 2/11/2017)
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