BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – New protections against gender identity discrimination in relation to county employees and housing could soon be in place, under proposals circulating amongst Brown County’s board of supervisors.
“This is one of those situations where perception matters,” said Aaron Linssen, a county supervisor.
Linssen is behind the proposal to protect people from being denied housing based on their gender identity.
“I’m not aware of any current problems of discrimination, but it’s one of those things where we can plug potential holes, we might as well do it preemptively,” said Linssen.
Linssen says the county proposals aren’t as encompassing as the ordinance De Pere recently passed.
De Pere’s ordinance protects against gender identity and expression discrimination when it comes to all city employers, businesses, and landlords.
“We do have very strong protections against already in place at the state and federal level regarding sexual orientation and sexual identity, gender identity,” said State Rep. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere).
Jacque is co-sponsor on a bill that would ban local municipalities from having non-discrimination policies for employment.
“It’s really something where the idea is do you want to create another layer of bureaucracy where you have one un-elected bureaucrat who basically makes a determination whether or not fines are going to be imposed,” said Jacque.
“It is an interesting question as to whether this should be a local issue, county issue, and state issue,” said Linssen. “That’s one of the reasons the county hasn’t taken this up at this point and looked at doing an ordinance of our own.”
It’s unclear whether the state legislation would impact either of the proposals Brown County is considering. Jacque says he hasn’t had the chance to look at either.
Brown County will look at the nondiscrimination proposal for housing at a committee level Wednesday night. The proposal for county employees was referred to county staff at a meeting Monday night.
