http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/busin ... 3adco.html

I don't know a whole lot about what is typical on these lists, but some of the ads they talked about are pretty awful. I don't know if we need to police classified ads for being discriminatory, but someone should be checking out alot of these landlords and monitoring some of these perspective tenants. I would think an organization like Craigslist would like to avoid bad press like this, but they can always use the defense they aren't the ones actually posting the ads.

I'm a newspaper guy who uses craigslist for certain things. Craigslist should be held to the Fair Housing Act regulations. It really has nothing to do with whether or not they are a newspaper or "an entirely different animal". Every single real estate agent licensed in the state of Maryland must include the Equal Housing Opportunity logo in every advertisement or piece of collateral, plus they must adhere to Equal Housing Act regulations.

I keep a Fair Housing Advertising Word & Phrase List in my desk. Here's some examples very similar to my list:

Not Acceptable
African; Agile; AIDS, no; Alcoholics, no; Appalachian, no; American Indians; Asian; Bachelor pad; Blacks, no; blind, no; Caucasian; Chicano, no; children, no; Chinese; Churches, near; Colored; preferred community; Newlyweds; Negro, no; employed, must be
empty nesters; English only; no retarded; exclusive; no drinkers; no crippled; married.

Cautioned
Active; no students; no Section 8; prestigious; near country club; sophisticated; mother-in-law apartment; grandma's house.

My list is from 1993, but still lists no gays; straight only; no lesbians as Cautioned, rather than Not Acceptable.

That's pretty interesting.
I've never used Craiglist.

I wonder if they could just have some sort of filter like Ebay has that searches for phrases and words of selling things against ebay policy. Then these select ads would attention drawn to them to be reviewed.

Why is it illegal to discriminate against parents with children? I don't see that as that much different from pet-owners, and I know it's legal to say, 'no pets'.

Yeah. Fuck kids.

What's the problem with newlyweds and near churches and country clubs? Or prestigious for that matter

God hates fags.

Newlyweds implies married (also not acceptable) which could be used to mean that unmarried couples living in sin are not welcome. Marriage can also backdoor your way into religious issues. Mentioning churches can be used to say "No Catholics" or "Jewish neighborhood", which can restrict the appearance of an equal housing opportunity.

Exclusive, prestigious or near country clubs could be a nice way of saying no black people or other minorities, since country clubs are generally pretty crackerfied. Exclusive also assumes that some people are excluded, or that buyers must fit a limited profile, which is completely contrary to regulations aimed at Equal Housing Opportunity. The list I posted earlier is only part of it. The one I have from 1993 is damn near two pages.

Here are the EHO regulations:
EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY
We do Business in Accordance With the Fair Housing Act
(The Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988)
IT IS ILLEGAL TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANY PERSON BECAUSE OF RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, HANDICAP, FAMILIAL STATUS (HAVING ONE OR MORE CHILDREN), OR NATIONAL ORIGIN.

• In the sale or rental of housing or residential lots.
• In advertising the sale or rental of housing.
• In the financing of housing.
• In the appraisal of housing.
• In the provision of real estate brokerage services.
• Blockbusting is also illegal.

You go to jail for that.

I could write a script to cover most of those.

Not in Viet Nam.