Wanted: Reporting help from HUD-hit readers

With millions of homeowners under water in 2011, and housing markets a mess in other ways as well, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) didn’t have enough to do, so it became concerned that “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and families are being arbitrarily excluded from housing opportunities in the private sector.”

Last year HUD promulgated a final rule that prevents HUD homeowners from discriminating against LGBT residents, or even asking about sexual orientation. If you want to see how sexually anarchic our society is becoming, read a few pages of the Federal Register, vol. 77, no. 23, pages 5662-5676, which runs through varied definitions of gender identity and other such issues. The section also reports concerns such as, “defining sexual orientation as ‘homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality’ alone excludes many people.” Apparently, noting only those three categories “excludes transgender individuals who self-identify as multi-gendered or between genders.”

But here’s a question WORLD reporter Daniel James Devine is asking: Have some religious individuals or organizations stopped working with HUD homes or interacting with HUD because of its new rules and regulations? Do our readers have personal experience that throws light on the practical result of such regulatory language? If so, please email our intrepid reporter: ddevine@worldmag.com.