You and your main squeeze want to rent a place together before marriage? Don't count on it if your lifestyle goes against your landlord's religious beliefs.
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission says landlords can use their religion to deny housing to unmarried applicants because single people are not protected as a group by civil rights law.
That means Akron landlord David Grey didn't violate any laws when he cited his Christian beliefs in refusing to rent a house to an engaged Akron couple.
``There's nothing wrong in using your religion to make a decision,'' Grey said. ``What good is religion if you can't apply it?''
Danielle Levingston and Todd Roberts could not be reached for comment. Vincent Curry, executive director of Akron's Fair Housing Advocates Association, said the decision was a surprise and he worried that it could pave the way for other kinds of discrimination.
``Landlords could decide that they don't want to rent to divorced women, because they don't believe in divorce,'' he said.
He said housing decisions should be based on criteria including ability to pay, not the landlord's personal preferences.
The case has been percolating at the Civil Rights Commission since October. That's when Grey refused to rent a house on Voris Avenue for $650 a month to Levingston, Roberts, her three children and the child they had together.
While landlords can choose not to rent to unmarried couples because a rift between them could be bad for the rental arrangement, Grey rejected the couple because of his religious beliefs.
Levingston went to the Fair Housing Advocates Association and it represented her in her complaint to the Civil Rights Commission.
In February, a regional office of the Civil Rights Commission backed the couple, finding probable cause to believe Grey had discriminated against them. Grey appealed. When he didn't hear from the Civil Rights Commission for three months, he filed a lawsuit in Summit County Common Pleas Court in May to declare the Civil Rights Commission's decision a violation of his First Amendment right to freely practice his religion.
In mid-June, the full Civil Rights Commission ruled in favor of Grey. Then Levingston and Roberts appealed. The Civil Rights Commission issued its final ruling against them and for Grey in August.
That reversal is fairly rare. Connie Higgins, spokeswoman for the Civil Rights Commission, said the full five-member commission reverses regional decisions 3 percent of the time.
About 5,000 cases -- in employment, higher education and other areas -- are filed annually on the basis of race, disability and other factors.
Higgins said the full commission took a more detailed look at Levingston's complaint than the local office had.
``The commission can adopt, remand or modify or reverse. In this case, they reversed,'' she said. ``It's just a part of the process.''
On Tuesday, Grey said he was only trying to help Levingston when he told her that his treatment of her was based on love and the Scriptures, that God's word gave him wisdom and that one of God's commandments was not to live in impurity.
He said he was quoting the Bible when he told her that people who live together will not inherit the kingdom of God.
``When she approached me to rent the property, she said she was concerned about the environment her children had been living in,'' Grey recalled.
``I thought perhaps that she may very well be passing on some wrong values to her children, so out of a heart for her, I started to tell her what the Scriptures have to say about impurity.''
Levingston has said that Grey kept asking her when she and Roberts were going to get married.
``I told him we didn't want to get married and then have to struggle to find a place to live,'' she said. She said she had encountered a lot of discrimination as a black woman, but not for her marital status.
Grey said he had cited his Christian beliefs in refusing to rent to other unmarried couples in his 25 years as a landlord.
But no one had ever complained to the Civil Rights Commission.
He said his decision extended beyond religious rights, to property rights.
``As long as landlords don't violate the Ohio civil rights code, they're free to do what they want with their property,'' he said.
Curry said Levingston and Roberts have married since the original complaint was filed. He said he didn't know if they would pursue the issue in court.