Hugh Hawkins and Jillayne Schlicke, 1989
In honor of National Coming Out Day, as an educator in the real estate and mortgage lending sector, I enjoy hearing stories from students about what it was like to sell real estate and originate loans in the 1950s and 1960s, before the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. The young-youngsters in the room are a bit taken aback to hear real-life stories about neighborhood segregation, discrimination against Jews or African Americans, and denying credit to women. Blockbusting, redlining, and racial discrimination as well as mortgage lending discrimination happened to people who are still around to tell those stories because it really wasn’t that long ago.
As a young woman in mortgage lending in the early 1980s, I remember meeting a Realtor named Michele (pronounced the French way, “Mee-chelle”) who held a leadership position with the Snohomish County Camano Association of Realtors as well as a management position at MacPherson’s Real Estate. Michele is gorgeous. She’s tall and has the looks of Snow White: dark brown hair, blue eyes and creamy white skin. She didn’t look like the stereotypical lesbian that I had stored in my mind, but she was and was she ever. Strong, confident, polished and professional, I looked up to Michele for having the audacity to be out and proud.
Hugh Hawkins was one of the industry’s most favorite attorneys and educators. I’ll always remember the way he walked all over the room, using a microphone with a really, really long cord (this was before cordless mics) and he did his entire presentation, answering everyone’s questions, with no hand-written notes. I was amazed. Hugh died way too soon and wasn’t out of the closet because he didn’t think the conservative business leaders and bankers he represented would be able to handle a publicly ‘out’ attorney. Once when I was very nervous before conducting an important meeting I asked Hugh for some advice. He said, “Jillayne, just take a deep breath and tell yourself that everything you need to know is in your head and when it’s time for you to recall that info, it will be there.” I miss you, Hugh.
Tim was a good looking loan officer who I worked with in the mid-1980s and he taught me a lot about how to remain steadfast and professional when faced with ignorance. A homophobic loan officer at our branch volunteered to bring in sanitizer and wipes so as to wipe off all the phones after Tim used them because she was afraid of contracting AIDS, even though research at the time had already suggested otherwise.
In the early 1990s I was out in the field calling on Realtors and one of my colleagues who was assigned to a specific real estate office didn’t want to call on one of the Realtors at that firm because he was gay. Well I didn’t have a problem with that and I can’t quite remember what my colleague said to Darrell so that the account could be switched over to me. To this day Darrell and I are still friends and he and the partner he was with at that time just returned from their Niagra Falls wedding. I love you Darrell!
HUD is considering adding sexual orientation to the protected classes under the Fair Housing Act because it is currently the top Fair Housing complaint in the rental market. In Washington State, sexual orientation is already a protected class. HUD reminded lenders recently that it will not insure FHA loans where lenders engaged in discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation in states where it is now prohibited. I wonder what Hugh Hawkins would say today about how far we’ve come in real estate and mortgage lending. Even the National Association of Realtors has already amended their Code of Ethics to include sexual orientation as a protected class. That wouldn’t have happened in 1989.
I’ve been openly bisexual for a long time and role models like Michele, Tim and Darrell who were not afraid to be out in conservative industries like real estate and finance paved the way for me and others. The more people are open about their lives, the more we will see that GLBT folks are all around us and always have been.
Yes, Realtors and lenders have had to follow Fair Housing and ECOA laws when working with clients for the past 30+ years. But it’s taken almost that long for GLBT folks to be accepted mainstream within their own industries. Or maybe it’s just happening like I learned in grad school: economics drives morality.
2013 UPDATE National Fair Housing/Fair Lending laws have been updated to include sexual orientation as one of the protected classes under the “familial status” category.