The San Francisco Board of Supervisors rules committee on Monday advanced changes to the city's administrative code that will update definitions of prohibited discrimination in contracting ordinances.
Sponsored by Mayor London Breed and gay supervisors Rafael Mandelman (District 8) and Matt Dorsey (District 6), the proposal now heads to the full board. The rules committee, made up of Mandelman, who is vice chair, District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, chair; and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, unanimously approved sending the item forward. There was no public comment.
During their brief discussion on the matter, Jude Diebold, with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, said that they had gathered input from a variety of sources, including the commission's LGBTQ advisory bodies. Diebold said some definitions contained in Chapters 12B and 12C of the administrative code were outdated. Those chapters deal with contracts, including property contracts, that the city enters into. In addition to revising the definitions of gender identity, sex, and sexual orientation, the term gender expression will be added.
The definition of age will be revised in Chapter 12A, which is the Human Rights Commission ordinance.
"It will clean up some problematic definitions of age," HRC staff member Matthew Oglander said.
As an example, Oglander said that in the HRC ordinance that established the commission, age is currently capped at 65 under the code as that was the case in federal and state law at the time. Now, however, state and federal language increased the age cap before removing it altogether, Oglander said.
Disability, too, will be more broadly defined under the revisions. Oglander said the definition had followed the narrower federal law and would now be updated to the broader state law.
The Mayor's Office of Disability is supportive of the changes, Peskin noted.
Dorsey told the Bay Area Reporter he was pleased the item, which was first proposed earlier this year, got a hearing.
"The updated language in our municipal code reflects a more enlightened take on gender identity and sexual orientation, which I think is more worthy of San Francisco's inclusive values." he said. "Language updates that pertain to age and disability status are really about harmonizing local provisions with their state and federal counterparts."
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