This is the less high-profile part of a pair of measures recently introduced for council consideration. The other half -- allowing transgender people to use the restroom of their preference free of interference -- is still in committee.
But this ordinance passed Monday night prevents city contractors from denying someone a job or a promotion because of gender identity or expression.
It updates existing Cleveland laws that protect transgender people seeking employment and housing.
Alana Jochum with LGBT-rights group Equality Ohio welcomes it.
"In 2009, council tried to expand its protections for the LGBT community by including gender identity and expression as a protected group in most places, but there are a few places that were missed," Jochum said. "Today's passage corrects those pieces."
And the new law would shield transgender people from "ethnic intimidation," a criminal charge of menacing someone because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other attributes -- now including gender identity or expression.
There's no date set yet for the other half of this legislative push, the part dealing with restrooms, to come before a full council vote.
An earlier version of this story misspelled Alana Jochum's first name. It is Alana, not Alaina.
