OKLAHOMA CITY – In two separate letters sent Tuesday, Attorney General Gentner Drummond is demanding the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) stop discriminating against white and heterosexual homeowners, while urging the Governor to remove the “offending appointees” responsible for the discriminatory conduct. Drummond sent letters to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Chair of OHFA’s Board of Trustees Michael Buhl.
“As Attorney General, I will not tolerate Oklahomans being subjected to discrimination of any kind—especially by officials entrusted with stewarding taxpayer dollars,” Drummond wrote in the letter to Stitt. “I urge you to immediately remove the offending appointees at OHFA and replace them with qualified Oklahomans who will treat all applicants equally according to the law.”
The discriminatory conduct of the agency is at the core of a federal lawsuit. In Elaine Wilkinson et al. v Oklahoma Finance Agency et. al., it is alleged that OHFA appointees engaged in unlawful discrimination against white, Asian and Pacific Islander homeowners solely on the basis of race and against heterosexual homeowners solely on the basis of sexual orientation. Drummond said such conduct, rooted in unlawful DEI policies, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 2000d.
Drummond noted that OHFA’s own website reflects its ongoing commitment to this unlawful discriminatory conduct. The agency’s posted criteria states that “African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, [and] LGBTQ+” homeowners may qualify for benefits if their income is at or below 150 percent of the area median income, while white and heterosexual applicants are restricted to an income threshold of 100 percent of the area median income.
In the letter to Buhl, Drummond demanded the agency immediately stop its unlawful practices and update its website to clarify it is no longer considering race or sexual orientation when awarding funds.
Read the letters.
