Wake passes protections for LGBT employees
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- LGBT advocates praised Wake county commissioners Monday following the board's unanimous 7-0 vote, passing an ordinance to ensure LGBT county employees do not face discrimination in the workplace.
Susanna Birdsong with North Carolina's American Civil Liberties Union said it was a victory for the LGBT community.
"They're not worried about who they are or who they love; they're worried about the quality of the work that they do in the office," said Susanna Birdsong
Commissioners Matt Calabria and John Burns authored the ordinance that now ensures lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people will not face discrimination. The all-Democratic board of commissioners voted it through, making Wake only the fourth county in the state, behind Buncombe, Durham, and Mecklenburg, with similar protections. Calabria and Burns said Wake is also the first to not only cover gender identity in its non-discrimination policy, but gender expression as well.
Not only was it a matter of falling in line with federal law as well as current practices in the private sector, but there was also a personal motivation in the form of a campaign supporter- a retiree of Wake County.
"He told me that he really would have appreciated it if during his 30 years of employment in Wake County, he hadn't always had to feel like he was looking over his shoulder," said Burns. "Nothing happened to him but he felt like he could not be himself. To me, that was a tragedy because he was a talented man who did a lot of good things for this county."
Birdsong hopes other local governments will follow Wake County's lead and pass similar non-discrimination policies.
"I think it says that North Carolina has a ways to go," she said. "The majority of people go to work every day and don't have these same kind of protections."
The ACLU notes Buncombe, Durham, and Mecklenburg as the only other counties to have similar protections in place.
Wake County's non-discrimination policy was also extended Monday to protect veterans and ensure no county employee could be discriminated against based on race, sex, or family status.
