WAL-MART ANNOUNCES PLANS TO PROTECT GAY EMPLOYEES

Drudge Report ^ | 07/01/2003 | Drudge

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

WAL-MART ANNOUNCES PLANS TO PROTECT GAY EMPLOYEES; Has expanded its antidiscrimination policy... DEVELOPING...

[Diddle E. Squat]

Shouldn't this be Breaking News?

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

"Shouldn't this be Breaking News?"

I think it was when I posted it.

[TonyM]

No doubt that Wal-Mart's days are numbered. They may be the biggest retailer for now but its stuff like this that will provide an opening for another enterprising chain to begin stealing Wal-Mart customers by doing what Wal-Mart did in the beginning when Sam was alive, focus on the customer, not the employee. In 20 or 30 years Wal-Mart will have went the way of K-Mart.

[frnewsjunkie]

Walmart has run every "dime store" out of most towns and cities. They have monopolized the market till there is hardly any other choice but Walmart. KMart has closed in our area... Target is still here. But the Walmart stores are always crowded.

They didn't have to do this... totally unnecessary... and totally too politically correct. Makes NO sense.

Who started this bandwagon... and where is it going to end? Not good.

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

"In 20 or 30 years Wal-Mart will have went the way of K-Mart."

I agree. I used to enjoy the way Wal-Mart annoyed the unions by running an open shop. Now they're pandering to the same bunch. It won't make them any friends on the left, but it sure will piss off a lot of us on the right.

[Diddle E. Squat]

That's what I thought. It is only a surprise announcement over the current most contentious issue of the culture wars that will be at the politicl front and center for at least the next year, that may be the heart of a constitutional amendment that will redraw the balance of Federal powers. But what do I know...

[Libertina]

Who started this bandwagon
I believe you can "thank" Sandra Day O'Connor.

[Centurion2000]

One to two percent of the damned planet is homosexual and they have become the PC exalted elect.

This is disgusting

[hole_n_one]

From the NYT article linked at reply #12......

With Wal-Mart making the policy change, 9 of the 10 largest Fortune 500 companies now have rules barring discrimination against gay employees, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group in Washington, D.C., that monitors discrimination policies and laws.

The exception is the Exxon Mobil Corporation, which was created in 1999 after Exxon acquired Mobil, and then revoked a Mobil policy that provided medical benefits to partners of gay employees, as well as a policy that included sexual orientation as a category of prohibited discrimination.

Wal-Mart said it had no plans to extend medical benefits to unmarried couples, but gay rights groups that have pressed for coverage for domestic partners said they would continue to lobby the company to do so.

Among the Fortune 500 companies, 197 provide domestic partners with medical coverage, including several of the major airlines and the Big Three automakers, and 318 have antidiscrimination policies that extend protection to gay employees, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

With Wal-Mart now joining the ranks of companies with protections for gay employees, and in light of last week's Supreme Court ruling, gay rights groups said they expected many corporations, and possibly state governments, to follow suit.

It seems that this gay rights thing is not a new nor novel approach in the least.

Maybe that's why it's no longer in Breaking News.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Timing is everything. What are half the topics of threads today about?

[sinkspur]

No doubt that Wal-Mart's days are numbered. They may be the biggest retailer for now but its stuff like this that will provide an opening for another enterprising chain to begin stealing Wal-Mart customers by doing what Wal-Mart did in the beginning when Sam was alive, focus on the customer, not the employee.

There's no other discount store in the country that focuses on its customers MORE than Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is a $250 billion global company, larger than its two nearest competitors combined.

There's no room for any other "chains." The barriers to entry into the market are way too high.

As for focusing on employees, I read stories almost daily here that Wal-Mart disses its employees.

[hole_n_one]

What are half the topics of threads today about?

I'm afraid to look.......but I have a pretty good idea.

I thought I was doing FR a service by simply linking to the NYT article rather than making another post on this site with the word gay in it's title, but, I'm sure eventually, the article will be posted as it's own thread........in breaking news.

[Dolphy]

Timing is everything. What are half the topics of threads today about?

And they don't represent nearly half the issues facing this country today.

Wal-Mart has most likely made this decision to protect itself from lawsuits. Having a policy and making an effort to communicate it to your employees goes a long way in defending a company from groundless lawsuits.

[El Gato]

I can hear Sam rolling over in his grave.

So that's what that sound from the northeast was! I thought maybe a tornado was taking down northeast San Antonio. :)

[dogbyte12]

This is not a radical policy here. Wal-Mart is not giving benefits, acknowledging same sex couples, but just saying that people can't be rejected for employment for being gay, or being fired for the same.

This costs them zero dollars in benefits, and it is quasi in place already. Somebody isn't going to be fired at most Wal-Marts for being gay as it is, so this really is not a radical overturn of policy. It wasn't as if Wal-Mart had a corporate policy of firing gays. This just codifies it.

[redangus]

This the letter I sent to Wal-Mart in response to their new policy.


It has recently come to my attention that Wal-Mart has decided to change their family friendly policies and begin supporting the homosexual agenda that seems to be an epidemic sweeping the country. While Wal-Mart certainly has the right to make this change in their corporate policy, I as a regular shopper and stock holder also have the right to show my disapproval by taking my money elsewhere. I intend to do both by shopping at other stores and selling my stock. It is also my intention to pass this information on to as many of my family, friends and associates as possible.

[El Gato]

Apparently this "protection" only extends to them not being harrassed in the workplace. It does not extend to granting them any special privledges. It's sound like they did this to get a noisy, and likely fairly small, group of shareholders out of their face. It's still the cowards way out to imply that gay employees enjoy some "special" protection. . The right thing to do would be to say that Gay employees at WalMart enjoy the same workplace protections as all other workers. (Meaning virtually none not required by law, and not even some of those apparently. )

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

"This is not a radical policy here. Wal-Mart is not giving benefits, acknowledging same sex couples, but just saying that people can't be rejected for employment for being gay, or being fired for the same."

Just the action of singling out a particular group for special treatment is what is offensive. To acknowledge someone - in this case someone who is a homosexual - belongs in a unique class of people elevates what is really just a sexual fetish to something that doesn't deserve mention in the workplace or the marketplace.

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

"BARRY GOLDWATER thought you homophobes were clymers."

How could someone be called a homophobe when all they want is equal treatment for all? Part of equal treatment means not grouping people into their own workplace tribes.