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NAR Addresses an Important Issue - Thanks to a Blogger on Active Rain

NAR Addresses an Important Issue - Thanks to a Blogger on Active Rain

An article in this month's Realtor Magazine in the "Real Life" section discusses the fact that the issue of sexual orientation is finally being addressed in the Code of Ethics. This turn of events is largely credited to a blog post written by an Active Rain member.

In December 2007 Eric Kodner wrote an important post that pointed out the fact the Realtor® Code of Ethics has seriously neglected the issue of sexual orientation discrimination while Active Rain has thoughtfully included it in its guidelines.

Article 10 of the Code of Ethics is intended to prevent discriminatory practices among Realtors®. However, the current wording of the Article only protects the following categories: race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

As Kodner's post pointed out, Active Rain is ahead of NAR on this since its guidelines specifically prohibit the use of slurs or stereotypes intended to demean a particular: gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality.

Taking a cue from Eric Kodner and Active Rain's lead on this issue, a historic vote was taken at the Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meeting in Washington D. C. on May 15. The board of directors voted to add language to Article 10 of the Code of Ethics specifically to address intolerance of a person's sexual orientation.

If the Delegate Body, which meets on November 8 at the Realtors' Conference & Expo in New Orleans, approves of the change, Article 10 will read:

Realtors® shall not deny equal professional service to any person for reasons of race color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national original or sexual orientation.
Realtors® shall not be parties to any plan or agreement to discriminate against a person or persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin or sexual orientation.
Realtors® in their real estate employment practices shall not discriminate against any person or persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or sexual orientation.

Kudos to Eric Kodner for bringing this to the attention of NAR - and also to Active Rain for being on the leading-edge of this issue from the start.

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Posted by Claudette Millette - Metrowest Mass Buyer Broker on 07/13/2010 05:17 PM

Comments (41)

NAR Addresses an Important Issue - Thanks to a Blogger on Active Rain in the ActiveRain Channel

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41 Comments on NAR Addresses an Important Issue - Thanks to a Blogger on Active Rain

JUL

2010

Good post, Illinois has already spearheaded this.

That's pretty cool. Active Rain is definitely where the movers and shakers hang out. Glad we are on the cutting edge.

Lyn:

Yes, Illinois passed some legislation on this in 2006.

Great post...thanks for the information. I am surprised and a bit concerned at how long it's taken NAR to get on board.

Chris Ann:

It is one of the many reasons to feel proud to be here.

John:

It is amazing now that you mention it. But, it seems as though they are finally on it.

JUL

2010

Claudette,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I wasn't aware that NAR was amending their stance on this issue. It's great to hear.

I recently wrote a real estate professionals oath that has a similar point in it:

"I will never give preference in my professional services based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, sexual orientation, or disability. "

I didn't realize this wasn't already a protected class.

It doesn't surprise me that AR and members of it are going to continue to influence the way business is done in real estate.

As Lyn Sims said above, I think something regarding sexual orientation is in the Illinois code or license law. But I do have to say that I am surprised that in this day and age we have to talk about it at all.

Organizations and associations tend to adopt their rules from already set law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_housing I am happy when trade associations like NAR and and others like AR take it a step further to protect even more classes; thus, resulting in a full circle back to legislation changes in the future (we hope). My best friend and business partner falls in this class and she deserves this change! Go NAR!

It is so hard to believe that we are, as a society in 2010, still discussing discrimination of any sort. And yet, here we are. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I missed the original post & I'm glad NAR took a stand as well.

Yay Eric!!!

Yay ActiveRain!!

It was a long time coming. Making this call in 2007 was fortuitous in some ways, but it is still a shame we have to have protected classes. In too many ways, gay people bear the brunt of the last vestiges of Jim Crow.

Good post and thanks for sharing this information with us. I must agree, I thought this issue would have been addressed many years ago.

Jonathan:

They have taken their first steps toward changing this. Their final vote will happen on November 8. Let's hope they do the right thing.

Christine:

I think NAR does pay attention to what bloggers on Active Rain are writing about and there is a great deal of influence here.

Leslie:

I agree - this should be over and done with. Massachusetts has certainly addressed it.

Kristen:

Your friend deserves this protection. It is long overdue.

Jenna:

You can read the original post in the link provided in my post. It was interesting to me that it happened in 2007 and is only now being addressed.

Maureen:

Yay - triple yay, Eric and Active Rain!

Phil:

Agree - it is way past time to get rid of these antiquated ways of thinking and give protection from discrimination to everyone.

Stephen:

It certainly should have been by now.

Claudette, thanks for sharing this and I am so glad that this is happening - had no idea! I can't beleive how much I learn from the awesome participants on AR every day.

Claudette - Until you pointed this out, I just assumed that it was already written into the code. The words "shall not discriminate against any person or persons" should be enough, but sadly it is not. Hope to meet you at RainCamp.

I have always been a fan of Eric.

I used to think ActiveRain was soft on protecting those members who stood up for the rights of all consumers whatever their sexual orientation despite Eric making statements like:

"Since ActiveRain has already taken the lead on this important matter, perhaps it's time for NAR to do likewise and take the step of including sexual orientation as a protected category in Article 10 of the Code of Ethics." on ActiveRain.

Eric said that in the 2007 post Claudette has a link to. I think in 2008 I still believed (wrongly) that AR looked the other way when it came to "sexual orientation."

Makes me proud of ActiveRain!!! In a more recent post about this Eric wrote: "There's a personal side to this story as well. Three years ago, when I was blogging quite a bit on ActiveRain about Fair Housing issues, a fellow who didn't care for my subject matter sent me an email message. He dismissed Fair Housing Laws and the anti-discrimination provisions in the Realtor Code of Ethics as "a lot of PC garbage". And he boasted to me that he could discriminate against gays all he wanted, because "there's a loophole in the Code".

Yay NAR! for helping those who don't get "shall not discriminate against any person or persons"

Wow - I wasn't around when Eric posted this back in '07. A shame it's taken this long for NAR to act.

Lets hope the Delegate Body does the right thing on November 8th.

Thank toy for pointing this out and its great that Eric and Active Rain brought this issue to the forefront of NAR.

First a change in the Code and that is great. But a lot of work still needs to be done about society gving equal rights to all citizens.

Claudette,

Good move for the NAR plus it shows the power of AR! In NJ, we have had this coverage for quite some time.

Claudette,

Thank you so much for the kind mention in your post!

Active Rain deserves huge credit for their foresight on this issue. The AR Guidelines led the industry in making non-discrimination a matter of policy.

It was exciting to be present at the NAR Professional Standards Committee vote on this issue during the Midyear meetings. And I'm also very proud of our Wisconsin Realtors Association Equal Opportunity in Housing Committee for bringing forth this proposal to NAR in early 2009.

Good going, Eric! One can say great foresight on his part but it is primarily Eric willing to sieze the opportunity to take a stand and speak out for an important egual rights issue the moment it comes up and taking action. I do believe NAR will qove ahead positively with this in November.

Coral:

It is great, isn't it? Keep reading daily.

Judy:

I think we would all like to assume that these things have been taken care of but we are not entirely there yet.

Maureen:

You may have always been a fan of Eric's but this is my first discovery of his writing. And, that has been another good thing that has come from this. I will now be subscribing to his blog.

I am also extremely proud of Active Rain on this issue.

Richard:

I was not around then either, but isn't it great that we can go back and read what was written and follow the progress of this historical vote.

Scott:

I think it is important as well.

Joe:

One baby step but at least it is in the right direction.

Irene:

New Jersey is ahead of some other states, as is Massachusetts.

Eric:

It was my pleasure, really. I was very interested in reading how you brought this issue to NAR and then traveled to Washington to help move it along. Thank you for being one of those people who truly makes a difference.

It's great that NAR finally decided to "catch up." It's really a shame it took three years to get it done but I guess moving a huge bureaucracy takes time......Thanks for highlighting this change.....

Craig:

Three years and it is not actually quite done yet. Hopefully, in November they will make the right decision.

Congratulations to Eric on the article in Realtor Magazine. It is important to note that Eric Kodner is a Director of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals, http://www.naglrep.com In early 2008 NAGLREP staff was researching the code of ethics for an amendment to include sexual orientation. See http://www.dallasvoice.com/news/realtors-e-mail-calls-being-gay-harmful/

NAGLREP met like minded Realtor Eric Kodner during our research in early 2008 via his Active Rain blog dated 12/5/07 and Eric joined NAGLREP. NAGLREP staff along with Eric spoke to NAR staff about a strategy to approach NAR about our proposed amendment, and the rest is history.

If you would like to see an update on our efforts in DC, see http://www.naglrep.com/federalfairhousinglawsexualorientationgenderidentity.html

A video of NAR Professional Standards unanimous vote
http://www.naglrep.com/narcodeofethicssexualorientation.html

You may view more on NAGLREP's work with NAR's Diversity program at http://www.realtor.org/diversity

Jeff:

That article in the Dallas Voice was very interesting. Thank you for all of this information.

My pleasure Claudette. Thank you for taking your time to address this important concern in your blog post today, and thanks again to Active Rain for guiding our organization NAGLREP to Eric. Eric is a great guy. It's been a great journey, and we are proud to work beside him within NAGLREP to advance LGBT equality.

Glad to hear this. I'm going to reblog the post because it is an important message.

Finally! This is a great post! Thanks for blogging about it!

-Michael

It's good to see NAR catching up. Fannie and Freddie made the change a few years ago. HUD later followed suit on the issue. Lending guidelines do state that gift funds may come from a domestic partner.

JUL

2010

Thanks for sharing this, Claudette. I didn't realize this discrimination issue wasn't already addressed in the code... but glad to see it will be. I hope it's adopted in November.

Claudette I should have dug deeper to see if someone else posted about Eric... my apologies! I searched his name here before posting but this didn't show up... I too read about Eric and was blown away! But I just got to my post earlier today. Found yours as I was looking at a group I'd not heard of before... You did a great job on this post!! congrats on the well deserved feature!!!

My thanks to Jeff Berger for relating additional details about how this proposed amendment to the Realtor Code of Ethics came into being.

In addition to being a member of the Wisconsin Realtors Association Equal Opportunity in Housing Committee, I also serve on the NAR Equal Opportunity - Cultural Diversity Committee. It was gratifying to witness the overwhelmingly positive response from the National Association of Realtors EOC when this proposal was first submitted (by the Wisconsin Realtors Association) in early 2009. The NAR Professional Standards Committee was equally enthusiastic and supportive.

This proposed amendment to the Code has been the work of many hands. Credit should also be given to the Wisconsin Realtors Association Board and President Bill Malkasian, WRA Legal Affairs Director Debbie Conrad, attorney Kevin King, former NAR President Dick Gaylord, the NAR Diversity Department, NAR General Counsel Laurie Janik and also to the various NAR committees and Board members who considered this proposal as it moved through channels.

JUL

2010

The readers of this post may wish to take a look at another recent post, entitled "Code of Ethics or Catering to the Overly Sensitive?

One commenter to that post appears to equate organizations such as the Women's Council of Realtors, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) to the Ku Klux Klan.

omg.. thank you for the 411 Eric.

Thank you, everyone for your comments on this important issue.

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Claudette Millette - Metrowest Mass Buyer Broker

Ashland, MA

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