The Arlington City Council tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 10) approved a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance that, many believe, in effect leaves the city’s minority residents without any protection against discrimination.
The vote follows the council’s vote in December not to reinstate the city’s original nondiscrimination protections passed in 2021, after suspending that ordinance in September, 2025, due to concerns over federal funds. Republicans in Austin and in Washington, D.C., threatened to withhold federal funding for any city that did not rescind so-called “DEI” policies,
DeeJay Johannessen, the CEO of HELP Center for LGBTQ Health who was instrumental in getting the city council to pass the original ordinance in 2021 and has been working to get protections reinstated since September, said in a press release supporters are “deeply disappointed” by the vote.
“Though described as progress, the ordinance fails to provide meaningful local protections and in fact dismantles all of Arlington’s existing anti-discrimination laws,” according to a press release from HELP following the vote.
The press release explains that the measure approved tonight by the council “replaces Arlington’s duty to protect with a ‘meet and refer’ model, eliminating the city’s responsibility to investigate or resolve discrimination complaints.”
The ordinance leaves “residents, workers, visitors and businesses … without local recourse” and instead directs those who feel they have been discriminated against to “outside agencies that are often overburdened and inaccessible. Every protected class in Arlington loses meaningful local protection under this framework.”
The new ordinance, according to the press release, “limits city involvement to providing a website or phone number to victims of discrimination.”
Johannessen pointed to a statement tonight by Council member Rebecca Boxall, saying that it “underscores the central problem. She said, ‘We aren’t taking anything away. The previous ordinance did not have any enforcement, and neither does this one.’
“Yet she opposed reinstating the prior ordinance because she argued it lacked enforcement,” Johannessen said, “and then voted for one she acknowledges also has none. That contradiction is difficult to reconcile.”
The HELP press release notes that “Despite repeated explanations, Boxall disregarded that the prior ordinance’s enforcement mechanisms that require the city manager to conduct investigations, require participation by the alleged violator, facilitate mediation and issue formal written findings. Enforcement does not require a monetary fine. Aaccountability, participation and documented findings are enforcement mechanisms.
After thanking “everyone who has come out to the council meetings over the past five months,” Johannessen said, “We call on everyone who cares about fairness and accountability to contact your councilmember and join us at the Feb. 24 meeting, when the final vote is scheduled. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We need our voices heard.”
He added, “The only practical difference between leaving the prior ordinance suspended and passing this one is that victims will now be handed a phone number to Washington, D.C.,” suggesting that “the absence of sufficient votes to pass a meaningful ordinance raises serious questions about the priorities actually driving this debate. Arlington deserves an anti-discrimination ordinance that works in practice and a council that recognizes the difference.”
— Tammye Nash