LGBTQ+
Everyone deserves to choose the place they make their home. REALTORS® are committed to creating opportunities for all people to rent or buy the home of their choice.
Ensuring fair housing for LGBTQ+ individuals is the right thing to do; it is a legal imperative; and it is good for business.
How to Talk to Clients
Know Your Rights
Economic Impact
LBGTQ+ Stories
Through firsthand stories from LIBOR members and Long Island homeowners, this video series highlights the experiences, relationships, and impact of working with and being part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Erica Turner
REALTOR® Member
Joe and Jose
Freeport Home Owners
Brian Maguire
REALTOR® Member
In this episode of Room to Think, REALTOR® Kathleen Ryan and LIBOR Government Affairs Director Kevin Brady explore the economic and business impact of working with clients from the LGBTQ+ community, offering insight into inclusivity, market considerations, and best practices for today’s real estate professionals.
Long Island Board of REALTORS® (LIBOR) and our REALTOR® members are committed to making the American Dream of home ownership available to all. That includes combating discrimination in housing against all people, including LGBTQ+ individuals, to ensure fairness and equity for all.
To make Long Island home for all of us, all communities must be recognized, welcomed and free to live where they wish. This includes the LGBTQ+ community, which has long experienced discrimination in access to housing.
There are numerous legal protections in place to protect the fair housing rights of LGBTQ+ people on Long Island. Most importantly, New York State’s Human Rights Law makes it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Additionally, Suffolk County has added additional fair housing protections based on group identity, which includes actual or perceived gender and sexual orientation. New York City has also made it illegal to discriminate in housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In Nassau County, it is also illegal to discriminate based on actual or perceived gender or sexual orientation.
In addition to legal protections, there are powerful economic reasons to ensure LGBTQ+ people can choose where they live. For example, LGBTQ+ individuals have had an outsized economic impact on Long Island, transforming communities – including Fire Island, Jackson Heights and Freeport – and generating increased business activity.
It is a growing market. LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ individuals to be first-time home buyers (46% vs. 29%) and first-time home sellers (40% vs. 28%), according to research by the National Association of REALTORS®.
LIBOR is committed to extending the fair housing promise to all who choose to make Long Island home. In the case of the LGBTQ+ community, that promise delivers for the economy, energy and future of the neighborhoods and municipalities that matter to all of us.