Mellon fired an employee, in part due to his disrespectful treatment of his LGBTQ coworkers and in part due to his inappropriate work behavior.  The employee, Avraham Schwartzberg of Squirrel Hill, filed a lawsuit claiming he was discriminated against because of his religion; he's an Orthodox Jew. 

He was a member of the company's group for people with disabilities, known as HEART, and in May 2005, like all other Mellon employees, he received an e-mail inviting him to a luncheon hosted by the Mellon's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employee group with Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Five days later he received a reminder from the head of the group for disabled employees about the luncheon.

His trouble at work started two days later when he sent a note back to the head of the disability group saying it should not be lumped in with other groups of workers. His note included the line, "If you happen to be black or purple or green, etc. or happen to have this sickness called gay or lesbian, just do your job."

The head of the group sent the note to the Human Relations department and later testified the e-mail showed a lack respect for other individuals. The company agreed and called Mr. Schwartzberg in for a meeting where he was told his e-mail reply was offensive and that while the company respected his opinion, he was required to treat all co-workers with respect. He replied later with a religious postcard and a note that said in part, "the true friend of gays and lesbians is the one that points them to help."

A US District Judge tossed the religious bia suit out. 

Previous decisions at this level have tossed out claims that religious freedoms allow discriminatory behavior targeting gays in the workplace. 

It sickens me when people in the workplace assume that homophobia must be tolerated as an outgrowth of Christian, Jewish or any other belief system. That's bullshit.  You come to work, you leave a little bit of your personal freedoms at the door when they conflict with the personal freedoms of other individuals. 

Amen, Mellon. 

ARTICLE V: DISCRIMINATION

(b)   It shall be the public policy of the City to prohibit discrimination because of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, place of birth, sex, sexual orientation, familial status, age, nonjob related handicap, or disability in employment; and

(n)     SEXUAL ORIENTATION.    Male or female homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality or perceived homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality. 

Give credit where credit is due.  Luke Ravenstahl hired Tamiko Stanley as the City's Equal Employment Opportunities manager and she's tackling the job full-throttle when it comes to gender and race, according to Friday's Post-Gazette. This includes everything from upper-body strength standards in firefighter hiring to forging partnerships with community-based groups such the Kingsley Association to recruit more African-American applicants for City jobs.

Rich Lord mentions that Stanley came to the City after several years with the Pirates without noting her actual accomplishments in diversity recruitment.  I'm assuming we are all in agreement that the City has enough overpaid fat-cats who accomplish nothing to rival anything the Pirates lineup for the past umpteen years.  Hopefully, that wasn't Stanley's forte. 

Stanley has her work cut out for her with the Racial Equity Review Team, labor unions and lotsa lawyers breathing down her neck.  One of those neck-breathers is long-time activist Celeste Taylor who is the only person in the article to mention sexual orientation in the same breathe as diversity.  Not a single column inch mentions Stanley's plans to diversify the City workforce along the sexual orientation continuum.  No mention of incorporating LGBTQ issues in the new City University diversity curriculum.  I'm torn between thinking Rich Lord didn't ask the question, but it is probably more accurate to acknowle that sexual minorities are not on the radar for Stanley. 

This is the Democratic Administration helmed by a Mayor who publicly stated his opposition to gay marriage and gay civil unions.  If he fails that litmus test, is it realistic to think he's going to promote "take a queer to work day" for City employees?  Yes, I realize Luke had the big gay meeting with local LGBTQ leaders (including the Stonewall Democrats) the afternoon before the election, but not a single person in attendance has uttered a public word about the outcome. Thus, Luke is still officially opposed to gay unions.

I guess this latest diversity accolade puts to rest the rumor that Luke thought he was opposing homosexual labor unions.  I've contacted the homosexual labor unions, but they, like the Steel-City Stonewall Democrats, have yet to reply to my email inquiries on this issue.

Some highlights: 

FOP Prez Jimmy Malloy thinks the $38,000+ low a starting salary for police officers with two-year degrees is the diversity issue.  Yeah, that's probably it. Or maybe it is the nasty little requirement forcing the police officers to live far away from the lily white mecca of Cranberry Township that drives the minority applicants away!

Ms. Taylor wants to apply the NFL's "Rooney Rule" to City openings, requiring that at least one minority applicant be interviewed.  Do you think the NFL applies that principle to homosexuals or they just let the beat down/pray for your soul football culture weed out the queers?

Mr. Malloy is quoted as believing police recruits "are already indoctrinated to the principle of treating people with respect."  

Well, we know Luke respects folks in our community willing to ante up for some back rubbing.  There's no Pittsburgh LGTB Chamber of Commerce and our professional networking group (Thursday Night Live) is on life support, so who is going to advocate for a more-queer friendly City workforce?  Or pay for it?

Did Rich Lord ask any gay questions?  Did he?

Good news for members of the LGBTQ community working for a handful of our local employers. From the Post-Gazette ...

Mellon Financial Corp., US Airways and GlaxoSmithKline were among 142 companies ranked as the Best Places to Work for Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Workers. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2007 rankings include companies that implement policies and practices to promote fairness and equality for GLBT workers, the foundation said.

Mellon Financial was featured in a Post-Gazette article for supporting employee driven affinity networks

The HRC Best Places to Work 2007 identifies over 140 companies that achieved a perfect score on equality issues.

Individuals can be fired in 33 states if they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, and 42 states if they are transgender. HRC recognizes these Best Places to Work for GLBT Equality as companies that have made a commitment to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace.

The index only considers Fortune 500 companies and excludes governments, non-profits and hospitals (that's a shame). Criteria include:

* Including sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in company non-discrimination policies.

* Offering diversity education that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

* Offering equal benefits to domestic partners, including health coverage

* Supporting transgender employees with transition guidelines and wellness benefits.

*Recognizing and supporting GLBT employee resource groups or company wide diversity councils

* Engaging in respectful and appropriate marketing/philanthropy to the LGBT community

Some other companies of interest on the ranking (at least my interest):

- GAP , Nike and Levi Strauss

- Clear Channel Communications

- Best Buy

- Sears

I'm too tired to be very verbose tonight.  Here's a good resource from the Human Rights Campaign ....

Buying a cup of coffee? Filling up your gas tank?

Booking a flight for that dream vacation?

Every day, you make decisions about whom to support in corporate America. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Buying for Equality can help you easily support companies that support equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.

Ratings in Buying for Equality are based on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual report card, the Corporate Equality Index. A record 138 companies scored 100 percent on this year’s report, which is a significant increase from the 101 companies that earned a perfect score last year. Every day, from enhanced domestic partner benefits to transgender inclusion in non-discrimination policies, we are seeing a revolution in the American workplace.

Last year, more than 250,000 people used Buying for Equality to make informed choices about their purchases. This year, you can do your part to support fair-minded businesses by requesting or downloading Buying for Equality 2007.

A landscaping business owned by Christian conservatives is under fire (and some praise) for refusing to work for homosexuals.  Garden Guy owner Sabrina Farber sent an email to Michael Lord and Gary Lackey explaining her reasons for not submitting a bid.  Lord and Lackey forward to friends, urging them to avoid doing business with a company that practices homophobia. 

The world has responded.  The Garden Guy website was beseiged with idiots threatening the owner's family, but also with people praising their stance. One professional landscaping association has adopted a non-discrimination policy. 

"It was just our intent to uphold our rights as small-business owners to choose our clientele," she said. "All the hate, the threats of sodomizing my children, the threats of me being murdered, came out because of a very businesslike straightforward e-mail I sent. The crowd of tolerance and diversity is not so tolerant."

See I hate comments like that.  Since when is being tolerant the provence of any one particular crowd?  Conservative Christians are quick to throw down the T card when it comes to anyone even slightly restricting their rights to be a xtian as they want, so its bogus for Farber to hide behind that one.  And her "crowd" were the ones sending death threats to the Dixie Chicks' families.  No one in my circle of liberal friends (or conservative friends) would condone threatening a family or wishing harm on children. 

But Mrs. Farber said she and her husband also had gotten hundreds of calls and messages offering encouragement and had been touched by that. "We just cried. We have been through so much," Mr. Farber said. "We become accidental crusaders for Christ."

Yes, Mrs. Farber -- Jesus and the City of Houston are proud of your bigotry and give you free reign to be as discriminatory as you want.  You go girl!