Let’s talk about … discrimination

Happy Friday and happy birthday weekend to me! I will be accepting snacks and hand written cards all weekend!

But before we celebrate, today’s blog is dedicated to a few of my personal faves, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Specifically, we will look at “sex” as a prohibited basis in credit decisions.

It is not news that ECOA makes it “unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age.” It is also no secret that Regulation B implements this law by listing “sex” as a prohibited basis on which to make a credit decision. Similarly, the FHA makes it unlawful to “discriminate against any person in making available [a residential real estate related] transaction, or in the terms or conditions of such a transaction, because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”

Although each of these rules has been around for a while, there has been more recent discussion about whether discrimination based on an applicant’s “sex” includes discrimination based on an applicant’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Well, the official verdict is in… and the Supreme Court, the CFPB, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the white house have all chimed in to make the answer quite clear. Yes.

 

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