At the recent annual governance meeting of the National Association of Realtors®, held in San Diego, the Board of Directors adopted a recommendation to expand its existing support of equal opportunity to include its application with respect to sexual orientation. The exact wording of the motion was: "That existing NAR policy on equal housing opportunity be amended to include opposition to discrimination based on sexual orientation."

The recommendation came to the Directors from the Equal Opportunity – Cultural Diversity Committee. At the committee and at the Board of Directors the recommendation passed unanimously. There was no spoken opposition. Indeed, at the committee level a number of often-impassioned members spoke in its favor. Additionally, as part of the rationale presented to the Directors, it was noted that "The Obama Administration has signaled its intent to announce proposals ensuring that HUD's housing programs are open to all regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

For many years NAR has had within its Code of Ethics (at Article 10) a fair housing policy that pretty well mirrors the law under the federal Fair Housing Act. "Realtors® shall not deny equal professional services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin." A similar policy, within the same Article, prohibits discrimination in "real estate employment practices." This doesn't exactly match federal law, because the Realtor® code doesn't address age discrimination.

It is also true that there are state and local jurisdictions with more expansive anti-discrimination rules. Some already have such laws regarding sexual orientation. Moreover, it is not clear that the Realtor® code might treat the concept of "handicap" as broadly as has been done by some legislative and judicial bodies. Still, for the most part, the Realtor® code is a close approximation of the law as far as discrimination is concerned.

While not specified in the Board of Directors' action, presumably the adoption of this recommendation will lead to a specific change in the Code of Ethics to include a prohibition against discrimination of the basis of sexual orientation. Also, presumably, that prohibition will cover both the provision of professional services and also brokerage hiring practices. This, in turn, will call for new training at both the local level and within individual companies.

It would be naïve to think that all Realtor® members will be equally accepting of this new policy. We know from the news and from national polling that across the country there are deep-seated divisions about such matters. The fact that no opposition was voiced at the NAR meetings probably doesn't tell the whole story.

Adopting anti-discrimination policies with respect to race and religion was no cake walk either. To do so was no doubt unsettling to many. Change, we all know, can be painful. But so can being the object of discrimination.

Published: February 9, 2010

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Bob Hunt is a director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .