The National Association of Realtors has voted to change its controversial “hate speech” rule after punishing a Christian minister who shared Bible verses on social media.
On Thursday, the NAR voted to change the “hate speech” rule adopted in 2020 under its code of ethics.
In the amendment to Standard of Practice 10-5, which says its members “shall not harass any person or persons based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” the NAR clarified that the rule can only regulate a realtor’s speech that is made in their professional capacity in furtherance of their real estate practice.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Wilson Fauber, 70, a longtime Virginia realtor, was found in December to have violated the NAR Code of Ethics, which prohibits realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs” related to “race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Fauber was punished by the Virginia Association of Realtors for sharing his biblical views on gender and sexuality on his personal Facebook page. Despite multiple attempts to appeal, the hate speech conviction was upheld in February 2025.
“This is a massive victory for free speech and religious freedom not just for me, but for all 1.5 million members of the National Association of Realtors,” Fauber said. “It’s clear that my imminent lawsuit against them and our work in state legislatures like Texas to push back played a pivotal role in bringing about this monumental change.”
Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation and its legal division, Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represents Fauber, praised the NAR for moving “swiftly to correct their disastrous ‘hate speech’ policy that has had the effect of punishing even pastors like our client from speaking in their personal capacity.”
Cobb called on the Virginia Association of Realtors to “take back” its ruling against Fauber and “compensate him for the losses to his business and reputation.”
Matt Difanis, an Illinois broker-owner and longtime DEI advocate who helped introduce the original measure, said during an NAR national meeting in Washington that the change was in response to “some pretty unpleasant legal liabilities.”
“This isn’t a capitulation,” Difanis said, according to Real Estate News. “This isn’t buckling under the weight of organized anti-wokeism or any of the other terrifying things that I know are really truly hurting our black and brown and LGBTQ-plus members and anyone else that’s from a historically marginalized group.”
While some opposed the change, NAR Senior Counsel Matt Troiani said the revision seeks “to ensure that the standard of practice is clearer but also more sustainable and defensible as far as enforcement goes.”
The controversy began when Fauber ran for Staunton City Council in 2023. Opponents of his campaign uncovered several social media posts from years earlier, including a 2015 post in which Fauber shared his Christian views on marriage, particularly in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of same-sex marriage. At the time, Fauber had posted a Bible-based perspective on the issue, sharing thoughts from the Rev. Franklin Graham and other Christian leaders.
In 2024, Fauber’s social media posts became the subject of a complaint lodged with the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR) over the purported violation of NAR’s code of ethics.
The posts, which Fauber shared as part of his personal ministry, went unnoticed until two fellow realtors, whom Fauber had never met, filed formal ethics complaints against him. The complaints alleged that his posts violated NAR’s vague “hate speech” rule. The VAR panel determined that Fauber’s views on marriage and sexuality, expressed through Bible verses and Christian doctrine, violated NAR’s Standard of Practice 10-5.
One of the two men who filed the original complaint with the VAR is reportedly an “openly gay man.” Complainants are not typically identified publicly in real estate ethics complaints.
