Posted on 07/02/2003 10:08:52 PM PDT by TheEaglehasLanded
Wal-Mart Announces New Gay Policy Wednesday, 2 July 2003
SEATTLE -- Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's largest private employer, has broadened its corporate anti-bias policy to include gay and lesbian workers, the company announced Tuesday.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said that the company implemented the changes because "It's the right thing to do for our employees. We want all of our associates to feel they are valued and treated with respect — no exceptions."
The decision was disclosed by a Seattle gay rights foundation that had invested in Wal-Mart and then lobbied the company for two years to make its discrimination policies more inclusive.
A spokeswoman told The New York Times on Tuesday that Wal-Mart had already sent out letters Tuesday to its 3,500 stores, after which store managers would explain the change to its 1.5 million employees.
Along with prodding from groups, such as the Pride Foundation, the spokeswoman said several gay employees wrote senior management about six weeks ago to say they would "continue to feel excluded" unless Wal-Mart changed its policies.
With the change announced by Wal-Mart this week, 9 of the 10 largest Fortune 500 companies now have rules barring discrimination against gay employees, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Activists will now press for DP health benefits.
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 currently had no plans to extend medical benefits to domestic partners.
Though no one directly linked the company decision to the Thursday's Supreme Court ruling against the country's sodomy laws, it certainly didn't hurt.
"A major argument against equal benefits, against fair treatment of employees, has been taken away," said Kevin Cathcart of Lambda Legal. "And so even within corporations it's a very different dialogue today, a very different dialogue."
There is no federal law prohibiting discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation, but 13 states, the District of Columbia and several hundred towns, cities and counties have such legal protections in place for public and private employees.
Wal-Mart's new policy reads in part: "We affirm our commitment and pledge our support to equal opportunity employment for all qualified persons, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability or status as a veteran or sexual orientation."
That same nurse could not take a private hospital to court for firing her for the very same action.
Southwest Airlines fired a flight attendant some years back for carrying a bible with her when she walked the aisles. She sued, but the case was dismissed, since a private employer can forbid such things.
There is no need to ban private behavior if that behavior is private.
But that is not what this is about, and you know it. Your adamant refusal to admit that only demonstrates your intellectual dishonesty.
They have no more and no less right to work than you do.
Certainly, as long as there is a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude in place. This is why you will never see an open homosexual working at a Christian bookstore.
You have only proved that the woman had a constitutional right to wear a cross just like Madonna or any number of rock stars. If she was causing trouble the owner would have every right to throw her ass out of his establishment just like someone using foul language.
So you admit the unfortunate idiots who harrass people because of their sexual orientation are not Christian and are behavior is not a practice of their freedom of religion?
I tried to locate that news story, but I could not find it despite my best efforts. Can you provide a link?
Furthermore, an employer cannot terminate someone for expressing their religion unless there is a compelling or competing interest.
I would love to see a private employer terminate an employee for hanging a poster with the national motto, "In God We Trust" on it in their office. The fallout would be delicious.
Only if you are speaking in terms of Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps. But then again, the guy is a looney no matter what religion he practices. That's why people of faith have nothing to do with the man, not even the idiots who take up serpents.
Sure they can. Private employers, in a right to work state like Texas, can stop you from expressing anything they don't want you to express.
I would love to see a private employer terminate an employee for hanging a poster with the national motto, "In God We Trust" on it in their office. The fallout would be delicious.
That's not an expression of one's religion either.
No you haven't. And you can't.
Precisely because you have no such right.
You only have the right to be free from GOVERNMENT interference in your religion - not private or corporate.
A U.S. District Court jury in Riverside, Calif., has found that Riverside County violated the constitutional rights of a nurse who was fired from her job after she refused to dispense medication known as a "morning-after" pill.
Last time I looked Wal-Mart wasn't a county.
Only if the OWNERS of the store say so. It's not up to you.
This is why you will never see an open homosexual working at a Christian bookstore.
Good, more power to them. The second gays try to force the government to make them work in private industry, I'll start opposing them.
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