Arlington council votes to suspend non-discrimination ordinance

The Arlington City Council this week took its first step toward suspending the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance and amending its Unity Goals with a 6-2 vote to do so on Tuesday, Sept. 2, according to a report Chris Moss for KERA’s Arlington Report. The council will take its final vote on the suspension next week.

The council took up the issue to protect its federal funding, put in jeopardy by Donald Trump’s executive order threatening funding for government entities that don’t suspend “all radical and wasteful government programs” as part of the administration’s ongoing efforts to eliminate all DEI efforts across the country

City Manager Trey Yelverton said during the Tuesday council meeting that the council is “taking steps that are all intended to pursue capital in this community with over $65 million worth of assistance coming here,” according to the KERA report.

The Arlington City Council voted unanimously in June 2021 to add sexual orientation and gender identity to its nondiscrimination ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment. DeeJay Johannessen, CEO of HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness, was among those speaking in support of the change in 2021, and HELP issued a press release the day after that report saying, “Passage of the ordinance, with overwhelming support, is an exciting and welcomed advance for LGBTQ+ equality in Arlington, America’s 49th largest city.”

Following the vote this week to suspend that ordinance, Johannessen criticized how quickly the council acted to suspend the ordinance, saying that he only learned of the move after the council’s agenda for Tuesday meeting was released.

“The fact that basic rights and protections can be so quickly thrown out should be alarming to everyone,” Johannessen told Arlington Report.

Eleven people spoke against suspending the ordinance at this week’s council meeting, with only two speaking in support, according to Arlington Report. Of the seven council members, including Mayor Jim Ross, only Council Members Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley and Nikkie Hunter voted against it, with Odom-Wesley saying that the meeting, “I cannot support suspending the anti-discrimination chapter because that says to me, ‘It’s OK to discriminate now,’ and it’s just not OK with me.”

The vote included suspending the city’s Unity Council, according to The Arlington Report, which was created in 2020 to “help create unity in the city and create ways to combat racism.”

The Arlington vote follows a 7-4 vote by the Fort Worth City Council in August to suspend its DEI initiatives to protect some $40.6 million in federal funds and grants, The Arlington Report noted. Fort Worth city officials said their city’s nondiscrimination section in the city code, which was passed in 2000 and amended in 2009 to include sexual orientation and gender identity following the raid on the LGBTQ+ bar The Rainbow Lounge by Fort Worth police officers and agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

— Tammye Nash