Talking Points

• People should be judged at work by their performance, not by what they do in their private lives. No one should have to face anti-gay discrimination, and no one should be afraid to be honest about him- or herself, at work or at home. In the same way that we agree women and ethnic minorities should be protected from unfair treatment because of who they are, gay and lesbian workers should not have to worry that they could lose their jobs because of a supervisor's prejudice.

• Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of working Americans receive no protection from state or local laws and have no legal recourse if fired because of real or perceived sexual orientation. In Idaho and the 38 other states without comprehensive laws, it is legal for any private employer to fire, deny promotion, unfairly compensate or decline to hire people because they are lesbian or gay -- or even perceived to be lesbian or gay.

• Workplace fairness is a basic American value. Polls consistently show that a vast majority of Americans oppose workplace discrimination. A 1999 Gallup poll showed that 83 percent of Americans surveyed support equality in job opportunities.

• Recognizing that it is important for a business to offer gay employees equal protection, hundreds of companies have extended their policies to cover sexual orientation, even though this category is not included in federal civil rights laws. Over 50% of the Fortune 500 business currently have sexual orientation non-discrimination policies.

Background

In the 1970's, a number of employer's began to adopt written non-discrimination policies including sexual orientation. Since then, the number of workplaces that include these two important words in their policies has grown to include more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, as well as numerous smaller employers. Most of these companies added this language to their policies within the last 10 years, responding to the overwhelming agreement that workers should not be judged on factors that don't affect their ability to do their jobs.

Currently, only 11 states have laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. These are: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada (Effective Oct. 1999), New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin . All these state laws prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation; most extend those protections to other areas as well, such as employment, housing, public accommodations and credit.

Seven states have executive orders barring discrimination in public employment based on sexual orientation: Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington. Two states -- Illinois and Michigan -- have state civil service rules prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. What this means is that in the 39 states without comprehensive laws, it is legal for any private employer to fire, deny promotion, unfairly compensate or decline to hire people because they are lesbian or gay -- or even perceived to be lesbian or gay. For that reason, it is essential that Congress pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would protect all workers in every state from this kind of unfairness.

There are good reasons for employers to adopt these policies:

• Attracting and retaining the best workers is a big concern, especially in our current tight marketplace. With unemployment running at under 5 percent, skilled workers in particular can be picky about where they work. Employers that offer the best benefits packages increase their chances of attracting the best workers. And as we head into the next century, business leaders know the competition for talent will get even more intense.

• As a growing number of employers address sexual orientation in their policies and programs, it is increasingly easy for lesbian and gay workers to select more inclusive employers.

• Turnover is bad for business. Training new workers to replace the old ones is costly, particularly if workers are leaving or being fired for reasons having nothing to do with job performance.

• Gay Americans are consumers, too. The "gay market" is growing rapidly, as more and more U.S. companies realize that many gay people, our friends and our families make marketplace decisions based on whether a company has gay-friendly policies. In 1996, for the fourth year in a row, the Stonewall Index -- a stock index tracking the performance of gay-friendly companies -- outperformed the S&P Index. So the impact of fairness, and conversely unfairness, can be seen most starkly at the bottom line.