Originally
posted by
Stryke:
The city has a Gay Pride festival every June, and several business will actually sponsor and support it, but for those than don't, those employers will outright terminate your employment for no other reason than that you are gay or lesbian. And instead of having the spine to cite this as a reason will always, invariably cite some flippant reason like the need to 'cut overhead spending', 'having too many employees is costing the company it's profits', etc...
First off...
***DISCLAIMER*** I think bigotry against any group of people is stupid, and I have nothing against homosexuals. In fact, I just went to a wedding reception for a lesbian couple this weekend, but....
Of course those employers don't cite the real reason (if it is indeed that they fired someone for being gay). If they're firing someone for that reason, they can't tell the truth without being guaranteed of being sued.
If you're a business owner who disagrees with gay marriage, for example, you can't even refuse to involve your company with something with which you disagree on religious/moral grounds:
http://www.deseretnews.com/...ow-fight-isnt.html?pg=all
This is just plain wrong. The civil rights movement and the laws that followed did a lot of good. Elminiation of *government sponsored* racism was necessary. Elmination of your freedom of association (and the freedom to NOT associate with whoever you choose) was a very very bad outcome.
A black business owner should be free to not associate with whites if he/she so chooses.. and the reverse is also true. Nobody should ever be forced to deal with someone just because they're in a "protected class".
As a branch manager first, and now a business owner, I never fired anyone in a "protected class". I couldn't without risking an expensive lawsuit. Straight whites who needed to be fired got fired. Anybody else got their hours cut until they found a different job or decided to go on unemployment. That may sound stupidly paranoid, but I've actually got one employee who I know sued his former employer for "discrimination", after dozens of people in his position were let go when the position was eliminated. Rather than spend tens of thousands on lawyers and then possibly still lose to this frivolous lawsuit, they had to just settle.
Its time for civil rights laws to be reexamined, and for freedom of association to be restored.