Posted on 10/13/2014 8:12:25 AM PDT by lowbridge
A civil rights commissioner has found that a Kentucky T-shirt company that refused to print shirts for a gay pride parade is guilty of discrimination, calling for its employees to attend diversity training — but the company likely won’t be backing down.
Greg Munson of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission announced last Tuesday that Hands on Originals, a T-shirt company based in Lexington, Kentucky, discriminated against the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington when it refused to print the shirts.
As TheBlaze previously reported, the gay rights group filed a complaint against Hands on Originals back in March 2012, alleging that it had been discriminated against due to sexual orientation.
Company owner Blaine Adamson has since argued that Hands on Originals is a Christian business and that the views espoused by the T-shirt — which advertised a gay pride festival — violated his religious beliefs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm, has defended Adamson throughout the two-year legal process, with senior counsel Jim Campbell telling TheBlaze that the commission’s preliminary ruling isn’t definitively clear.
It reads, in part: “The Respondent’s refusal to provide goods and services of public accommodation to the Charging Party constitutes unlawful discrimination against the members of the [Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington] on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity in violation of Local Ordinance 201-99.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
It is not pretending; the federal legislation sets the legal precedent, but does not specifically call out protection for sexual orientation/gender identity. The states have used the federal legislation as a template and precedent for invalidating free association as a fundamental right, but extend it to these additional areas. There is a map here that shows protections by state.
Staff...man-dated?
you can not commit a person to a mental hospital, but you can force someone to diversity training. Why are these people not fighting back.
Diversity training - one of the reasons I left my former, large corporation job.
They should turn their “diversity training” into an impromptu prayer and praise session.
Diversity training - one of the reasons I left my former, large corporation job.
I was in a class called Learning to Live, Learning to Love, designed specifically for abusive husbands back just before my divorce. No, I was not abusive, but it didn’t matter. I went to “save my marriage” (and it didn’t work).
But I was in the class where men who had been forcibly separated from their wives were talking about their “trial date” with their wife the weekend before. They would say that it was going great but then they “blew it” and had to leave their wife’s house.
Now, these men were like me: They didn’t hit anyone but were accused of being abusive in all the other ways that human beings can be “abusive”: They were too quiet. They were too loud. They yelled and then apologized. And on and on.
So anyway, sometimes I said, in front of the group, as the “lay” leader told them how they could do better next time, “You were not the problem there. Your wife was, and here is how...”
One by one they all opened up to me privately and I gave them private advice. I told them where they were wrong and where their wives were wrong. Thing is, I’d read “Men are from mars...”, I’d read “The dance of anger”. I’d read a lot of stuff from the woman’s perspective and these men were all going to a class specifically designed for men who seriously and physically abused their wives. It applied to not one single member of that group.
And yeah, I was kicked out by the teacher that was a psychiatry wannabee that could not support what he was doing. He even voiced strong concern that I only remembered my mother spanking me once and my parents never argued. He accused me of supressed memories.
I called my mother and she said, with no coaching from me, that she only spanked me once (the time I remembered) and they NEVER fought in front of the kids.
There is alot of pseudo science around these days. It’s not just global warming.
Epilogue. That class was at my church of 18 years that I left shortly after.
I think there is an undercurrent of fear - people are anxious to censor themselves. Everyone knows the Commissars have taken over and they are consolidating their power, looking for people to make examples of. Now they are pretty much limited to getting you fired from your job or taking your business away from you. We are maybe a Supreme Court Justice or two away from the Commissars censoring books, the Internet, closing churches and throwing dissenters in prison - the powers that be want us to be a slightly modernized version of the U.S.S.R.
I’m a lady - but I feel as if today’s agenda is designed to weaken men, or make them appear weak.
I was spanked as a kid - sometimes I deserved it, sometimes I got a spank that should have gone to a sibling. But I learned that actions have consequences.
My parents argued. But they were also very loving to each other & to us. People aren’t perfect.
At the time I had to go through the diversity classes (we’re talking like: Generational differences, GLBT, and more) - I needed my job. I kept quiet, just to get through it and back to work. But I totally thought it was a waste of time. I’m so glad I was able to find a new job.
Christians are becoming the outlaws once again. The homosexuals and their enablers are forcing us into the closets. Time is getting nearer folks.
Isn’t this an action against “Specialty Artisans” just another form of censorship from the far left commies?
Could a black owned t-shirt printing refuse an order from a klan group wanting T-shirts for their Klan-Jam-Boree?
Yes...
But a Christian group refusing LBGTalphabet group due to religious reason... Nope, they gotta be sued and MADE TO COMPLY!!! DAMMIT!!!
Have a (non homosexual) friend come in and ask for the same t-shirt. Refuse to print the shirt for them. Then it is no longer a discrimination lawsuit, but about the message on the shirt.
Because I was in IT and knew I could easily find a job elsewhere I was not afraid of CLM’s.
I remember our CIO, at an “All hands meeting” said that they were going to hold us to our estimates, and that if we estimated that a project would take 800 hours, if it took 850 we’d have to work the 50 hours as “professional commitment” for free.
I raised my hand and, in front of ~250 employeess, said, “Does that mean if it only takes 750 hours we get 50 hours off?”
Ya know, many of the Lord's predictions have come true, but the one on being persecuted, and killed for His namesake keeps coming true.
In the fwiw department, I won't go quietly into the good night...
5.56mm
Actually, they didn’t violate his religious beliefs but his moral beliefs.
I don’t think that the Left “took over”. I believe that it was more along the line[s] of given to them on a silver platter by our side. The reason I believe this is the “Common Core” concept in education, or as it is known in Florida, Florida Standards. I explained the perils and goals of this concept to at least 100 different parents with children in the system. Not one of them gave a damn.
Ah, but I was just an auditor, dime a dozen (not the CPA kind of auditor either, just a fraud/compliance one). Took me a while to find something better - plus I was the only one working for a while - my hubby was recovering from shoulder surgery and finding new work too. Fun times. But companies don’t always have the employees under their thumbs, so to speak.
How is this not an issue of “compelled speech”? Having a product pre-made (cake, tshirt, etc.) and refusing to sell it to somebody is a completely different issue than having to participate in creating new items for a cause you don’t agree with.
They need to argue they’re a “closely held” Christian company and forcing them to make the t-shirts is a violation of their civil rights. In this case it is compelled speech.
A company provides a product, or service, such as the t-shirts.
It receives an order for the product, but cannot fill it due to it's employees refusal to do it on religious grounds.
If the owner cannot fill the order without the willing labor of his employees, is he guilty of 'discrimination'?.
Can the employees be deemed guilty, and what would be their penalty if guilty?
And can the employer be forced to fire or discipline employees who refused to do the work?
If a company owner faced the prospect of such confrontation, I would think knowing the answers would be very beneficial.
Back in 1997 I was a contractor at a health care company. So many of their IT employees were quitting to become higher paid contractors that they had a special IT meeting (and, oddly, even invited contractors) where they gave all employees an across the board 20% raise.
Ah, heady times...
The day is coming when we will be in jail for posting on this forum. At least these guys only got reeducation camp.
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