Lesbian couple settles discrimination suit against Missouri housing community

A Missouri couple has settled a housing discrimination lawsuit against a retirement community after they were denied a unit because they are lesbians.

The lawsuit alleged that the Friendship Village of Sunset Hills, near St. Louis, Mo. violated the federal Fair Housing Act when it refused to approve the couple’s housing application in 2016, simply because of their sexual orientation.

On Tuesday, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) — which filed the lawsuit along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, co-counsel Relman Colfax, and St. Louis LGBTQ civil rights attorney Arlene Zarembka — announced that the case has finally been resolved.

“This has been a harrowing experience and one that I hope no other same-sex couple has to face. Bev and I are relieved that this case is now behind us and that we have closure after our lives were thrown into chaos,” Mary Walsh, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

Walsh, 74, and her wife Bev Nance, 70, got married in 2009 after being in a committed relationship since 1978.

Both women, who have lived in St. Louis since they were kids, decided to apply for a living unit at the senior housing community in Sunset Hill, a small city located 16 miles south of St. Louis.

The continuing-care retirement facility provides independent and assisted living that includes a clubhouse, a wide variety of one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, as well as 44 spacious villas.

“Friendship Village provides everything you want or need, all in one location,” according to its brochure, which adds that “a warm welcome awaits.”

Unfortunately, that welcome was not universally offered.

After the couple put down their deposit, in 2016, they say the facility rejected their application when they learned they were a married lesbian couple.

Friendship Village denied the two women their unit because of a “cohabitation policy” that allowed housing only to couples who had a marriage consisting of “one man and one woman, as marriage is understood in the Bible.”

In 2018, they took the matter to court, alleging that if either woman had been a man, they wouldn’t have been rejected.

The district court dismissed the lawsuit in January 2019, holding that the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination did not protect same-sex couples. They appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which put the appeal on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County.

After the historic Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that established that discrimination against LGBTQ people is, in fact, sex discrimination, the couple’s case was reinstated in the district court.

Both parties have now reached a confidential agreement.

“Housing is essential for everyone and can be a huge source of stress as we age or become more dependent on other people,” Julie Wilensky, a senior staff attorney at NCLR, told the Daily News in a statement.

“No one should have to fear being turned away from a retirement community because they are LGBTQ,” Wilensky added.