Marshal Wetzel sued her assisted living facility for failing to protect her from anti-LGBT harassment. Watch the video at the end of this post to hear her talk about her ordeal. (Photo courtesy Lambda Legal)

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, Aug. 27, ruled that the Glen St. Andrew Living Community in Niles, Ill., can be held accountable for not protecting Marsha Wetzel, a senior lesbian living there, from anti-LGBT harassment, discrimination and violence inflicted by other residents.

The appellate court’s decision overturned a lower court that had dismissed the case.

Karen Loewy, senior counsel and seniors strategist for Lambda Legal who is lead attorney for Marsha Wetzel, called the ruling “a tremendous victory” for Wetzel, adding that “just like all people living in rental housing, whether LGBT or not, should be assured that they will at least be safe from discriminatory harassment in their own homes.”

Wetzel herself said, “The court today struck a blow for me and for all senior citizens — gay or straight — who deserve to feel safe and to be treated with respect. That’s not too much to ask. No one should have to endure what I endured because of who I am.”

Loewy added that the 7th Circuit ruling “put[s] all landlords on notice that they have an obligation to take action to stop known harassment.”

The court’s ruling also said that “the harassment Wetzel describes plausibly can be viewed as both severe and pervasive,” thus rejecting the facility’s descriptions of what happened “as no more than ordinary ‘squabbles’ and ‘bickering’ between ‘irascible,’ ‘crotchety senior resident[s].’”

Freedom for All Americans pointed out that in its ruling the panel determined that a previous ruling in another Lambda Legal case, Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, applies to housing discrimination, too. In Hively v. Ivy Tech, the courts ruled that federal law prohibiting sex discrimination covers employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

FFAA also noted that this is the first federal appellate ruling to declare that the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Wetzel had moved to Glen St. Andrew Living Community after she was evicted from the home she shared with her late partner by her partner’s siblings. After she disclosed to other residents that she had been in a 30-year relationship with a woman and that they had raised a child together, some residents began to harass her, physically attack her and call her names like “fucking dyke,” “fucking faggot,” and “homosexual bitch,” according to Lambda Legal officials.

They said Wetzel had reported the harassment and abuse to facility administrators, but the staff “marginalized and alienated Marsha and retaliated against her for complaining about the harassment.”

Lambda Legal filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in July 2016, but the court dismissed the case without reference to the sex or sexual orientation claims, broadening the question at stake to the senior living facility’s general responsibility for protecting residents against resident-on-resident harassment and violence.

— Tammye Nash