Resident seeks ordinance against housing, service discrimination

STAR CITY — West Virginia state law does not protect residents from eviction, firing or refusal of service on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

And a Star City resident hopes the town leaders will take up the issue for its residents and others working in its boundaries.

“I think it’s up to the towns and cities in West Virginia, the communities, to … do something on a local level, and I’m hoping that Star City Council will do that.”

On Tuesday, Star City resident DeeDee McIntosh again appeared before council asking members to consider the addition of an anti-discrimination ordinance for the town.

At the Feb. 25 meeting, council approved changes to its personnel manual, which included updated verbiage and the addition of gender identity and sexual orientation to the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. At Tuesday’s meeting, McIntosh thanked council for approving those changes, but asked it to go further.

“You gave people who needed to be considered and protected, who are employees … the protections that I’m asking you, as council, to give to everybody in Star City,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh said she wrote to Star City Mayor Herman Reid — who was not at Tuesday’s meeting — to ask that the proposed anti-discrimination ordinance be placed on the agenda for the meeting.

It was not.

“But hopefully it will be sometime in the near future,” McIntosh said. McIntosh also said she would continue to write the mayor asking for that to happen.

McIntosh also said she asked the Star City Ordinance Committee, in writing, to include her proposed anti-discrimination ordinance on the agenda for its next meeting.

TWEET @DominionPostWV