(a) “Age Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on years of age (40 years or over).
(b) “Color Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on skin-tone. Equal opportunity cannot be denied to any person based of his or her racial group or perceived racial group, his or her race linked characteristics (e.g., hair texture, color, facial features), or because of his or her marriage to, or association with, someone of a particular race or color.
(c) “Disability Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual including having a record of such of such impairment or being regarded as having such impairment, (42 U.S.C §12102(2)).
(d) “EEOC” means U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
(e) “Gender Identity” means the gender a person associates with him or herself, regardless of the gender others might attribute to that person.
(f) “National Origin Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on birthplace, ancestral, cultural, family descent or lineage; linguistic characteristics common to a specific nationality; marriage or association with a person of a national origin group; membership or association with organizations identified with or promoting the interests of a national origin group’s attendance or participating in schools, churches, temples, or mosques generally associated with a national origin group; or a surname associated with a national origin group.
(g) “OCRC” means Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
(h) “Race Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on physical, tribal, ancestral, cultural, geographical or linguistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group or stock including but not limited to persons having origins in any of the original people of the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia, Antarctic, or Asia.
(i) “Religion Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief. (C.F.R. Title 29, Part 1605.1). Religious practices include moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong, which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.
(j) “Sex Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment against any employee or applicant for employment because of his or her sex in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment. Decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions about abilities, traits, or the performance of individuals on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which is an amendment to Title VII.
(k) “Sexual Orientation” means a person’s actual or perceived homosexuality; bisexuality; or heterosexuality, by orientation or practice, by and between adults who have the ability to give consent.
(l) “Military Status Discrimination” means discrimination or harassment based on service in the uniformed services which is defined under Ohio Revised Code §5903.01(G) as performance of a duty, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, in a uniformed service under competent authority. This includes active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty for training, full-time national guard, the commissioned corps of the public health service, and any other category of persons designated by the President of the United States in time of war or emergency, performance of duty or training by a member of the Ohio organized militia, and the period of time for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform any duty in a uniformed service. Ohio prohibits discrimination on the basis of an individual’s past, current, or future military status in hiring, promotion, tenure, discharge, pay fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, terms, conditions and privileges of employment, or any other matter directly or indirectly related to employment. USERRA similarly prohibits discrimination based on military status or service, and provides certain reemployment rights for service members returning from training or active duty.
(m) “Protected Class” means those classes of individuals protected by law including those classes listed in (a), (b), (c), (e), (f), (h), (i), (j), (k) and (l) above.
(Ord. 2008-85. Passed 11-19-08.)