From: gary@isis.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand)
Subject: Re: Amendment 2 (was: What happened to all the refe)
Organization: Climate and Global Dynamics Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
Distribution: co
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 06:10:08 GMT

tc> Timonthy Cuffell
gs> Gary Strand

tc> Are you gay?
tc> Yes.
tc> You're fired.

gs> Or, if companies/others protecting themselves from claims of discrimination
    (usually by statistical means), enact quotas:
gs> Employer:  "Are you gay?"
gs> Applicant: "Yes."
gs> Employer:  "You're hired, because we need 3 more."

tc> First, if this amendment hadn't passed, nothing would happen.  

  That's not quite true. Gays would continue to be able to take legal action in
  Boulder, Denver, and Aspen using discrimination, actual or alleged, against
  others, based on sexual orientation. (Meaning, in actuality, homosexuality.
  Those three cities didn't pass the ordinances they did to protect heterosex-
  uals.)

tc> There are no quota systems in effect anywhere in Colorado, and it is un-
    likely that there would anytime in the future, Amendment 2 or no Amendment
    2, unless we the people elected legislators which reflect our desire for
    quotas.  Extremely unlikely in this state (no a bad thing), and if it
    somehow did happen, it would reflect the will of the people.

  That's not what I'm talking about, legislated quotas. There are plenty of 
  companies that already have internal quotas, because they fear the costs
  of discrimination lawsuits, whether or not the discrimination actually ex-
  ists/existed. Given the statistical nature of most discrimination lawsuits,
  I see no reason why the 3 ordinances would have prevented them. For example,
  Hexanoct, a tape-drive maker, has 500 people on payroll. All else being the
  same, one would expect ~50 to be gay. Suppose only 10 are. Is this proof
  that Hexanoct is discriminatory against gays? This test has already been
  used successfully, and the ordinance in Boulder would have allowed such a
  lawsuit against Hexanoct. Ergo, Hexanoct decides to enact quotas to assure
  that such a suit doesn't happen. End result, my little scenario above.
  
  Quotas don't have to be legislated to exist.

tc> Second, and most odious, is that is seems that Amendment 2 gives employers
    a lot of power in a state where they have too much already.  You can be
    fired for being gay.

  Which doesn't mean that all Colorado employers, or even any significant frac-
  tion, will now begin to fire their gay employees willy-nilly because now the 
  law says that they can, and not fear lawsuits on that basis.

tc> I defy you, Mr. Strand, or anyone reading this, to prove to me you are not
    gay.

  You'll have to take my word. Since there is no exact line between "gay" and
  "straight", you ask the impossible. I also cannot prove that I always drink
  Dr. Pepper. The situations are analogous.

tc> It's hard.  Hard enough that all an employer has to do is suspect you are
    gay, and it's food stamp time.  

  Why I would want to work for such an employer is beyond me. If they're will-
  ing to lose all my experience and value I give to my job, I suppose it's
  their right to be stupid. It's their loss, not mine. I've got the skills to
  get another job, perhaps not as good a one, but I've worked lousy jobs too.
  The point is that they're the ones on the losing end, since an employer
  who rates sexual orientation as more important than ability isn't going to
  last long.

tc> [B]ecause I happen to have a lot of pink dress shirts, I now have a legit-
    imate fear of losing my job under amendment 2.  

  Why do work where you do, then? That's like a black working for the KKK. Is
  being out of a job, no matter how great the pay (and lousy the conditions)
  really that bad? It's not my fault you're a masochist.

tc> And so do you and every other employed person reading this.

  I doubt it.

  Going overboard with the hyperbole doesn't help your argument. In fact, it
  hurts it, a lot.

--
Gary Strand                      Opinions stated herein are mine alone and are
strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu            not representative of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF