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Show The Gam opinion - A closer look at 'fair housing' By Senator Jake Gam On April 4 a Senate Resolution was introduced in the Senate proclaiming April as "Fair Housing Month." As a co-sponsor of this resolution, I am concerned about the opportunities for fair housing in this country. It has been the established policy of this government since 1968 that the terms, conditions and privileges associated with selling or renting a dwelling are not to be determined by race, color, religion or national origin. In 1974, "sex" was added as an impermissible criterion for determining the terms of real estate rental and sales. There is a broad national agreement that fair housing laws are an important aspect of the rights and privileges of Americans, and the efforts of the last decade have brought long-overdue progress in the area of civil rights. In the National Fair Housing Law of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, one of the fair housing provisions reads: "It is the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States." The meaning of this 1968 legislation continues to be determined by agency regulations, administrative decisions, and judicial opinions. Currently, the U. S. Department of Justice and Brigham Young Universtiy (BYU) are negotiating over the meaning of fair housing as it relates to a private university. The Justice Department is apparently convinced that BYU is breaking the law by enforcing en-forcing separate housing for men and women students. The University requires all single students - whether ' male or female, whether living on campus or off - live in buildings or wings of buildings that are restricted to persons of their own sex. The school has adopted this policy because it is in keeping with the standards of morality of its sponsor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU believes that reasonable separation of the sexes in" housing reinforces moral uprightness by helping maintain traditional sexual restraints. I support BYU's right to establish these housing regulations. Men and women are treated identically, therefore I do not believe anyone's constitutional or statutory rights are being violated. I encourage BYU to insist on their Constitutional right to teach and require students to live high moral standards and to foster housing patterns supportive of that effort. I have co-sponsored legilation that would permit private educational institutions in-stitutions to requre separate housing for stud-nets stud-nets and staff by sex, but I hope that we will not reach The most difficult tongue twister in the world is thought by many to be "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick," especially when spoken spo-ken quickly. the point where this bill is needed. The Justice Department and BYU are still discussing the matter, and doing so in a reasonable manner, and hopefully an agreement can be reached short of litigation. I wholeheartedly support fair , housing in this country, and I also support the First Amendment. The fortunate thing is that we can have both: We can have antidiscrimination anti-discrimination laws at the same time that we allow private, church-supported schools to require high moral standards. It is unfortunate un-fortunate that the Department Depart-ment of Justice thinks these goals are mutually exclusive. |
