Grand Rapids — Ch. 176 Human Rights § 9.956

As used in this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall mean: (1)
Age: The length of time in years that an individual has lived.
(2) Agent: Any person acting on behalf of an employment, housing, public accommodation, or public services entity.
(3) Bias: A tendency, opinion, or inclination that is preconceived, unreasoned or based on protected class status including, but not limited to, prejudice in favor of or against one person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair or based on stereotypes.
(4) Bona Fide Occupational Qualification: A condition, characteristic, or factor which informs decisions and conduct with respect to a protected class in the area of employment when there are no less discriminatory means, but which is lawful, reasonable, necessary, and narrowly tailored to the safe, efficient, and standard operation of the employer, as further described in Section 9.959 below.
(5) City: The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
(6) Color: pigmentation of the skin.
(7) Complainant: a person aggrieved by a violation of a provision of this Chapter who files a complaint with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI).
(8) Conviction Record: the history of all criminal convictions of an individual in any jurisdiction, including time served in prison, jail, juvenile detention, probation, rehabilitation or diversionary programs, or placement on a sex offender registry.
(9) Creed: A system of beliefs, principles, or opinions that guides an individual's actions.
(10) Disability: A physical or mental characteristic of an individual which may result from disease, injury, congenital condition, or functional disorder, if the characteristic:
(a) For purposes of employment, substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual but is unrelated to that individual's qualifications for employment or ability to perform the duties of a particular job or position; or
(b) For purposes of public accommodation, is unrelated to an individual's ability to use and benefit from a place of public accommodation or public service; or
(c) For purposes of housing, substantially limits one or more of an individual's major life activities but is unrelated to that individual's ability to acquire, rent or maintain property.
For the purposes of this Chapter, disability shall include, but not be limited to, the use of adaptive aids, devices, or guides, but shall not include temporary impairments associated with drug or alcohol consumption
(11) Discrimination: To make or refrain from making a decision, selectively furnish or withhold access, or act or threaten to act in an adverse way in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodation, public services, or other benefit, based in whole or in part on the actual or perceived status of an individual as a member of a protected class. Discrimination includes:
(a) The use of facially neutral practices that have an adverse impact on members of a protected class.
(b) Harassment directed at a protected class; harassment does not need to be both severe and pervasive.
(c) Any act which results in unequal treatment or segregation of an individual.
(12) Employee: An individual performing lawful work for another person who does not share familial status with that person, in exchange for monetary compensation.
(13) Employer: Any person compensating one or more individuals for the performance of work in a lawful business or enterprise.
(14) Equal: Subject alike to all requirements, qualifications, conditions, and considerations that are not prohibited grounds of discrimination.
(15) Familial Status: An individual's position within the network of that individual's biological and legal relations within three degrees of consanguinity, or through marriage, adoption or other legal custodial relationship.
(16) Gender Identity or Expression: An individual's actual or perceived sex including identity, self-image, appearance, expression, or behavior, whether or not that identity, self-image, appearance, expression, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the individual's biological sex assigned at birth.
(17) Genotype: The genetic constitution of an individual.
(18) Harassment: Conduct or communication directed at another individual intentionally for the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment with regard to employment, public accommodation, public services, or housing.
(19) Height: Length of an individual's body as measured in feet and inches.
(20) Housing: Any real property, building, structure, or portion thereof which is used or occupied, or is intended to be used or occupied, as the home or residence of one or more individuals. This includes, but is not limited to, a house, apartment, condominium unit, rooming house, housing cooperative, homeless shelter, hotel, motel, tourist home, retirement home, or nursing home.
(21) Marital Status: The state of being married, remarried, never married, divorced, or widowed.
(22) Medical Condition: All past or present physical or mental health diagnoses, treatments, and procedures an individual has received, associated symptoms and risk factors, and effects of such diagnoses, treatments, and procedures.
(23) National Origin: An individual's nation of origin, or the physical, cultural, or linguistic characteristics associated with that nation or a part thereof.
(24) Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI): The department of the City responsible for promoting diversity and ensuring compliance with civil rights laws.
(25) Perceived: The perception of a person who acts, but not necessarily the perception of an individual for or against whom the action is taken.
(26) Person: An individual, association, partnership, agency, organization, or corporation, public or private, including all employees thereof. The term, when applied to partnerships, associations, and corporations, includes members and officers.
(27) Protected Class: Any group or status identified in Section 9.955 .
(28) Public Accommodation: A facility, including a governmental entity or business, offering or furnishing goods, services, places, privileges, or advantages to the general public for purchase, consumption, use, or acquisition, including, but not limited to, hotels, motels, housing, restaurants, taverns, concert and entertainment venues, retail and service enterprises, public services, and certain educational institutions. Public services include those goods or services provided by the City in the public interest to the people living within its jurisdiction, either directly or under contract.
(29) Race: The perceived status of human beings as belonging to distinct groups based on inherited characteristics primarily identified by skin color, and which is a social construct unsupported by the science of genetics.
(30) Religion: A particular system of faith and worship.
(31) Retaliation: Adverse action taken against the person who filed a complaint or participated in a complaint investigation under the Human Rights Ordinance.
(32) Sex: The biological designation of male or female assigned at birth. For gender, see subsection (16) above.
(33) Sexual Harassment: A type of discrimination including, but not limited to, unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature when:
(a) Submission to such conduct or communication by an individual is made a term or condition, either explicitly or implicitly, of obtaining employment, public accommodation, public services, or housing.
(b) Submission to or rejection of such conduct or communication by an individual is used as a factor in decisions affecting the individual's employment, public accommodation, public services, or housing.
(c) Such conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual's employment, public accommodation, public services, or housing, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive employment, public accommodation, public services, or housing environment.
(34) Sexual Orientation: An individual's sexual and/or romantic identity in relation to the gender(s) to which the individual is attracted, or the absence of such sexual and/or romantic identity.
(35) Source of Lawful Income: Any legal source from which an individual obtains money.
(36) Weight: The body mass of an individual measured in pounds.