No alcohol, pets, or Trump supporters: Craigslist apartment ads weed out President's backers

The political divide in the United States is spilling over into Craigslist ads in big cities throughout the country when people are looking for roommates.

"I did not vote for Trump, hope you didn't either!" says a post seeking a roommate in the coming months on Manhattan island, New York City. The poster describes themselves as an employee of an environmental non-profit and friendly to the LGBTQ community.

Ads like these are appearing across the US on both sides of the political divide.

"With all the winning Trump is doing for this country, I realize there are many sad snowflakes," says a Trump-supporting landlord in Nashville, using a new right-wing term for liberals. "I am not able to rent to entitlement liberals at this time," the post said. "I can't risk you becoming triggered and not making it to your safe space in time, then destroying my property."

Having a Trump supporter for a roommate would create a "hostile environment", Sahar Kian told CNN in an interview last week. The 23-year-old, and her roommates who are immigrants, turned to Craigslist when looking for a new renter for their home near Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

"Look at me, I'm brown. I'm a woman. I am somebody who is heavily reliant on Obama's pre-existing condition clause," Kian said, citing President Obama's Affordable Care Act which stops health insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing medical conditions. "I don't think that it's fair to judge me for not wanting somebody who criticises me for the things that I identify with," she said. Alcohol and meat products are also not allowed in Kian's house.

The Fair Housing Act protects renters from being discriminated against for their race, religion, disability, or nationality — not their political orientation.

Democrats and Republicans are deciding more now than ever that they don't want to live near their political rivals. In 1976 just over a quarter of Americans lived in "landslide counties" where political parties win by large 20% margins, according to Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why The Clustering Of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. Today more than a half of of Americans live in such places.

"My house is not a political battlefield. I would be more than happy to settle these issues with you at protests," Kian said. "But I am not obligated to turn my house into a political battlefield when I come home from work in the evening."