Orange Goes Pink

Four years ago, my hometown of Orlando made it illegal to deny housing or to discriminate in the workplace based on sexual orientation. This week much larger Orange County, of which Orlando is the county seat, has added sexual orientation to their list of banned reasons to deny housing. Of course, in Orange County (outside of Orlando) you can still be fired for being gay, as it is through most of Florida and in 32 other states. While some municipalities in those 33 states do offer workplace protection, the pressing need to get ENDA passed nationwide has been overshadowed by the (in my mind) less important marriage issue.

Sidenote: I wonder why the HRC hasn’t added Illinois, Maine, and Washington to their map of states that protect gay workers?