Recently, a couple wanted a home loan and chose Wainwright Bank & Trust in Boston. No other bank would do because at Wainwright, they believed, they would be treated like any other couple, and that’s made all the difference.

Kathleen Norton and Ruth Trewhella have been partnered for nearly nine years and say they have experienced “frosty” looks and “cold shoulders” from bank tellers and personnel at other banks where they held joint accounts. They even had trouble purchasing mutual funds and CDs, said Norton. For that reason, they chose to apply for a home loan at Wainwright, which over the years has been actively involved not only in funding gay and lesbian community events, but also with participating in rallies and supporting domestic partnership benefits.

Discrimination against same-sex couples when applying for a home loan is illegal. Industry officials say it’s not an issue because it is illegal to even broach the subject of sexual orientation. No statistical information exists to document the number of loans applied for, denied, granted or withdrawn for gay and lesbian couples, unlike the detailed information regarding lending for other minorities.

However, informal surveys conducted by Wainwright personnel and a myriad of anecdotal evidence suggests it is a concern among the gay and lesbian community – a community to which some banks are increasingly paying attention. Wainwright, FleetBoston Financial and G & L Internet Bank tout equal treatment and aim marketing efforts and charitable contributions toward the community.

“There has been ‘perceived’ discrimination,” said Steven F. Young, senior vice president at the $339 million-asset Wainwright Bank. The survey, conducted over a 12-month period in 1993, includes interviews with gay and lesbian business owners, educators, state legislators, directors of nonprofits and mortgage closing attorneys.

Wainwright was recently named one of the top 10 companies for 2000 for “sweet workplaces for gays and lesbians” by “The Advocate,” a national magazine. “One of our main focuses here is embracing diversity,” said Young.

“Many gay and lesbian couples seemed to believe that a declined mortgage application, especially for minor technical reasons, was a clear message their business was not welcome,” he said. “We heard stories like the lesbian couple who had been partners for over 25 years with good, steady incomes and credit histories who were turned down in their request for a mortgage over what they perceived to be a trivial reason,” he said.

“I think that certainly there is discrimination, but state law is pretty explicit that different treatment of gay and lesbian couples … is expressly prohibited. So while I’m sure it exists … it’s on the wane in the commonwealth because I think in this market, banks want to give out loans,” said Jennifer Levi, staff attorney for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination.

‘Fear Runs Deep’
According to JaLesia Jones, communications director for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, there haven’t been any complaints. “Most of our complaints come under [apartment] rentals,” she said. Jones said that kind of discrimination will be something the MCAD will look into in the future, but added that “people themselves would actually have to call and complain.”

But whether the discrimination is blatant or subtle, it affects where the gay and lesbian community does business, said Norton.

“Our experience with them [Wainwright] was excellent,” said Norton, adding that she was not just looking for a lack of blatant discrimination. “I don’t think there was any doubt in their minds that we were a couple. They treated us as a couple. We were asked questions as a couple. They asked both of us, instead of the lead person. There was a lot of respect, and give and take. I was really comfortable with them,” she said.

Although Norton and Trewhella live in Raynham, they still come to Boston for banking and maintain their accounts with Wainwright.

“I’ve had others with just joint accounts with my partner and just going to the bank have experienced coldness, from tellers and other bank personnel, when I was inquiring about such things as mutual CDs for the two of us,” she said.

“The way I read it is, homophobia is homophobia and that fear runs deep,” said Norton. Stereotypes may also be at work when banks deal with same-sex partners, she said. “I think the perception is that gay couples don’t stay together. If there is a break-up, it has been my experience that people who are gay take care of our business just like people who are straight,” she said.

One of the only sources of statistical information about homeownership rates among gay and lesbian couples is a study released in May that appeared in “Demography.” In fact, before 1990, couples of any sex who were not married were not differentiated from roommates on the U.S. Census form.

Titled “Demographics of the Gay and Lesbian Population in the United States: Evidence from Available Systematic Data Sources,” the study’s goal was two-fold, according to one of the authors. The first objective was to determine if information gathered through the General Social Survey, the National Health and Social Life Survey and the U.S. Census was effective at providing information about the gay and lesbian community, said Gary J. Gates, a research associate at the Population Studies Center of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

The second objective was to provide the first statistical analysis of gay and lesbians in the country that wasn’t based on a “convenience sample” (taken at gay bars or rallies) but taken from the general population.

The study found that gay and lesbian couples were less likely to own their own homes, but when they did, they were likely to be more expensive than the homes of heterosexual couples. According to the 1990 U.S. Census, 51 percent of gay male couples owned a home and 54 percent of lesbian couples were homeowners. About 79 percent of married couples owned a home.

“… Discrimination may be one factor in that, but you could think of other reasons why that might occur,” said Gates.

Gay and lesbian couples tend not to have children and often live in urban areas. “Ownership rates for both gays and lesbians fall below the population and significantly below the married population. While the home ownership is lower, both gays and lesbians tend to live in more expensive homes,” Gates said. Sixty percent of partnered gay men own homes and over 67 percent of those who do so have homes valued at $100,000 or more, according to the study done in 1990.

In 1990, Boston had the seventh largest population of lesbian couples in the country and the ninth largest for gay couples. That number is expected to increase, providing a broader market for lenders.

The financial needs of gay and lesbian couples are no different than those of any other couple, said Young. Therefore, banks have to concentrate on the intangibles to attract gay and lesbian couples, Gates said.

“The key is where the rubber hits the road. It’s having customer-contact employees who are sensitive and tolerant and, in some cases, openly gay themselves,” he said.

In order to attract business, said Norton, “They [banks] first have to make a commitment that they really want to. That has to generate down not just from their marketing people, but all the way down to the tellers.”