Posted on 05/02/2014 2:26:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When it comes to inclusion and equal treatment of LBGT employees, Toyota is at the top of the list. And it helps that the majority of Toyota employees live in a tolerant state like California. But could that change when the company's U.S. headquarters move to Texas in a few years?
Toyota is moving 5,300 employees from California (and some in New York and Kentucky) to Plano, Texas, a move Texas welcomed with open arms and an open pocketbook. It'll serve as a devastating blow to Torrance, Calif., who was apparently blindsided by the news.
By all accounts, Plano seems to be your average, bland, subdivision-laden corporate town. (It's also the home of JCPenney's headquarters!) I asked your Texan Jalops, Matt and Patrick, for their best summations of Plano, and all I got was "wealthy and conservative." But while not as exciting as, say, Dallas, it's worth nothing that Texas' ninth-largest city regularly appears on best-of lists when it comes to standards of living.
Seems like it would be a smooth transition, since Torrance is pretty suburban itself. But as Richard Read at GayWheels points out, it could be a culture shock for however many gay employees there are at Toyota — and if it's at all reflective of the auto industry as a whole, there might be many — who might not be as welcome in a state that has an anti-sodomy law on the books, allows landlords to discriminate against gay couples and doesn't recognize same-sex marriage.
That's a sea change from liberal California, which not only recognizes but performs same-sex marriages. And while I wouldn't be too worried about an archaic anti-sodomly law, it is possible a landlord could turn away (or evict, if found out) a couple, since the same anti-discriminatory Housing and Urban Development laws that protect gay couples in federally assisted housing don't apply at the private level.
I emailed a Toyota spokesman about what safeguards the company has in place for gay employees, and here's what I got back: "Toyota has a number of affinity group organizations including one for our LGBT associates," he writes. "Diversity and inclusion is a priority for Toyota North America. We have assured our LGBT team members and associates who may move to Plano from Kentucky, California, and New York, that eligibility for Toyota partner health and welfare benefits will remain the same."
Our Toyota spokesman hinted as much as well. "While it is difficult to forecast state political changes, as GayWheels correctly notes, the majority of the move will take place late 2016 or 2017, and by that time some of the legal changes referenced are likely to have taken place," he writes.
So why Plano and not the more progressive Austin or Houston? "Quality of life was one of many considerations in choosing the site," he writes. But he notes that Toyota is offering travel expenses for employees and spouses to explore Plano and its surrounding areas before they move there to decide if it's the place for them.
Any Plano residents out there want to give the 411 on what life is really like?
That's all well and good on the corporate level, but what about Texas culture itself? Read points out that notoriously homophobic Gov. Rick Perry will no longer be in office when Toyota breaks ground in Plano (he's not running for re-election after this term), so a door could open to removing legislation that bars gay Texans from equal rights. Or we may just see the Supreme Court remove the last barriers to gay marriage.
LOL. I almost said...A rarity. Close :)
It’s a variation of the “Why do the bridesmaid’s bring cow dung to a Polish wedding?” joke from way-back-when.
Lol...reminds me of the old “what do you do if you drop your wallet in Montrose?” joke.
Yes, several of them, all funny. :)
I can’t remember where you are supposed to kick your wallet?
Kick it to Westheimer?
I think that’s it ;)
Westheimer is a very long street, now!
Marriage in any case is something where I honestly feel “to each their own” Just because you consider something a marriage doesn’t mean I do. Nor does it mean that I actually care.
We, in Texas, are the BIGGEST BIGOTS in the country.
Gays would be CRAZY to move here. They will be MUCH HAPPIER staying in California and finding a new employer.
Only two things come from Texas ...
I was expecting this joke:
Guy 1: Only two things come out of Texas State; football players and whores!
Guy 2: I’ll have you know my wife went to Texas State.
Guy 1: Oh. What position did she play?
All those TV sitcoms and detective series filmed there have convinced some Californians that they live in the real world and the rest of the country is some inferior, surreal backwater. It’s the same disease that afflicts DC denizens and certain northeasterners, Manhattanites in particular. They believe the most peculiar things, about themselves as well as all those strange “there they be dragons” locales that have fallen off the edge of the known world to them. Ignorance proudly on display.
Or serve as an ambassador to Libya...
I mean seriously, do people always have to keep the fear of hate itself alive and well? It’s like they’re swatting at shadows sometimes.
I remember being a Delaware resident, and then when I moved to New York state for two years, every second person didn’t realize that Delaware was acutally a state, they thought it was a New Jersey or a Pennsylvania County. Yeah, I’m glad that I actually changed states of residence, otherwise I would have probably had a similar view.
They’ll demand the town be renamed from Plano to Blowmo Tx...
Well, to be fair there are Texas ranches bigger than Delaware, lol. I’ve driven through it a few times on I-95 but never actually spent any time there. Some parts looked nice, some parts didn’t, like most states. I’d imagine all said it’s an expensive place for residents, if only for the fact that there are so few to amortize the cost of state government and federal mandates if nothing else.
The perception - even if artificially manipulated - of being a member of a victim group is a bonding experience.
If gays like California, they can stay in California. It’s as simple as that.
“..allows landlords to discriminate against gay couples ...”
Buy a house, no landlord issues. Are they not a sought-after economiic group because of disposable income?
Don’t worry much lbgt’s, there will be thousands of others dealing with their own relocation issues too..
Haven’t they ever seen Full Metal Jacket? “only steers and queers come from Texas private cowboy, and you don’t much look like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down.”
So there you go, they should fit right in. Hollywood said it, so it’s got to be true.
It’s only going to get high given how many Delaware residents for reasons mentioned (drug junkies, AIDs, unemployed) will be subscribing to the UCA (Obamacare) pretty soon.
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