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Homosexual 'Marriage' Announcements -- Coming to a Paper Near You
Knight: Businesses Harming Themselves by Appeasing Homosexual Activists
July 30, 2002
(AgapePress) - Some of the country's major newspapers are considering announcing homosexual "unions" on the same pages as they announce heterosexual marriages.
A report in the Boston Globe says that paper, along with The New York Times, are both considering changing their policy about marriage announcements to include homosexuals. Globe editor Martin Baron says while some people may see it as an easy decision, he does not. Baron says community standards are not something the Globe can ignore -- but, he says, what a "community standard is is hard to say."
However, while these two big newspapers are still considering the change, those in some smaller communities have already started publishing homosexual unions. Several are in the New England area, which is not a big surprise because it is known for its liberal leanings.
But the Globe says at least one southern newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, has also made the move. The editor says although complaints outnumbered praise, a feared surge of subscription cancellations did not materialize.
Court Settlement
Meanwhile on the other side of the country, the City of Oakland, California, will pay an ex-city staffer, who is a lesbian, $160,000 to settle a lawsuit filed against the city's personnel director because he invoked "Christian values" in the workplace.
In the lawsuit, Kathleen Hurley said director Walter Johnson created a discriminatory and hostile work environment by giving preferential treatment to her colleagues who were male, African-American, and Christian. Hurley said in her lawsuit that Johnson told employees at his first departmental staff meeting that he was a Christian and would run the organization on Christian values.
Johnson fired Hurley in July 2000. She claims she was berated frequently in front of other employees. Oakland's city manager said he found nothing to substantiate Hurley's allegations, but city attorneys said they chose to settle the case and not run the risk of having a jury grant a higher award.
Johnson is still employed by the city.
Create, Then Eliminate 'Bigotry'
One pro-family spokesman says as more and more American companies attempt to appease homosexual activists by adopting policies based on "sexual orientation," they are falling prey to the strategy of those activists. Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute spells out that strategy: "Transform morality into a form of bigotry, and then use corporate and government power to eliminate that 'bigotry'."
In an article titled "'Sexual Orientation' and American Culture," Knight says homosexual activists themselves admit their ultimate objectives are to eliminate company policies that place a unique value on traditional marriage and to install a system that discriminates against people with traditional values. He contends that corporations, in their haste to mollify those activists, open themselves up to more demands and lawsuits designed to quickly and radically transform American culture.
Bob Knight
"Adding a formula to make a company more vulnerable to lawsuits and further activism does not seem to be in the best interests of the company or its stockholders," Knight writes. "Yet many businesses have tried to appease homosexual activists by incorporating 'sexual orientation' into their nondiscrimination policies. It is then that their troubles begin in earnest."
Knight believes the corporate and governmental shift toward "sexual orientation" as a civil right -- and away from societal support for traditional marriage and families -- will have predictable negative consequences. He says the resultant loss of freedom for those who believe in traditional morality, the loss of stability in communities, and a shortage of "employable, stable people" all portend destructive effects on businesses and society as a whole.
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AgapePress writers Fred Jackson, Allie Martin, and Jody Brown contributed to this story.
© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved
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The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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