Bet you didnt know (but could have guessed) . . .

. . . that Austin is a step ahead of the federal government in protecting the rights of gay renters.

Here's the summary of the Fair Housing Act as it stands:
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability).

What's it missing? You guessed it. No protections for gays or persons dealing with gender-identity issues. But here's where Austin differs.

From Texas Realtor Online, 04/04:
As noted previously, Austin prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, defined as “an individual’s sexual preference or practice including homosexuality, heterosexuality, and/or bisexuality.” Clearly, in Austin a landlord may not reject a tenant solely because of the prospective tenant’s sexual orientation. However, most other local jurisdictions in Texas have not adopted a comparable ordinance.

In fact, for all of us too young or too new to remember, in 1982 the issue came up for a hotly contested vote, in which locals handily voted down a measure to allow tenants to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

See this article in the New York Times for a little flashback.