McDonald’s Agrees To Training and Settlement After Staff Called Gay Customers “Faggots,” Super-Size Training For Management Offered After Kentucky Incident
LOUISVILLE, KY – Nine months after an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant in downtown Louisville called a group of gay customers a series of anti-gay slurs, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today that McDonald’s has agreed to a cash settlement and diversity training for management at 30 of its Louisville-area restaurants.
Ryan Marlatt, Teddy Eggers, and three other friends had stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s restaurant on East Market Street on July 26, 2008 while visiting Louisville for the weekend. While they waited for their food to be prepared, an employee behind the counter referred to them as “faggots” to another employee. When Marlatt and Eggers objected to the slur and asked to speak with a manager, the employee who had called them “faggots” started arguing with them, repeatedly calling them “faggots” in front of other customers and calling one of them a “cocksucker” and “bitch.”
“The reason we made such a big deal out of this to begin with was because we didn’t want it happening to anyone else, so I’m very glad McDonald’s management is going to be having these trainings,” said Eggers of Indianapolis, Indiana. “We were hurt and upset, but at least we’re adults and can handle being called names. We hated thinking that this kind of harassment might also happen to someone young and vulnerable who would really take it to heart.”
The supervisor on duty refused to refund the group’s purchase, so Marlatt attempted several times in the following weeks to contact both the general manager of the McDonald’s and the corporate offices, with no results. Louisville law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, so the ACLU filed a complaint in September on behalf of Marlatt and Eggers with the Louisville Human Relations Commission. In October, representatives of a variety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups as well as other civil rights organizations protested at the downtown Louisville McDonald’s where the incident took place.
Although Marlatt and Eggers only asked for $28, McDonald’s offered them $2000 each on its own, which they accepted, Sun said. The Louisville Human Relations Commission has been thoroughly investigating Eggers and Marlatt’s complaint since it was filed last September and helped negotiate the settlement between the parties.
“We’re really grateful to the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission for its investigation, as well as to our friends at the Fairness Campaign, and commonGround at the University of Louisville, for keeping the pressure on McDonald’s to do the right thing,” said Michael Aldridge, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kentucky. “While we’re fortunate to have a law banning sexual orientation discrimination in Louisville, this goes to show that it’s still important to speak out and do something about it when your rights are violated.”
“McDonald’s could have saved itself a lot of embarrassment if they’d just done the right thing from the start and done something about this, but it’s great that so many people stood up for us and came forward to say treating people the way we were treated is wrong,” said Marlatt. “We just hope the trainings keep McDonald’s from letting this happen to any of their customers from now on.”
When their Louisville Human Relations Commission complaint was filed, Marlatt and Eggers asked for a refund of the money they spent on the McDonald’s meal, and asked that one employee – the cashier who objected to the other employee’s name-calling – be commended. “She was the only employee in the whole place who tried to help us,” said Eggers. “I hope she hears about this and knows how much we appreciated her sticking up for us.”
“While we wish Ryan, Teddy, and their friends hadn’t had to go through this whole experience to begin with, we’re glad that at least McDonald’s is taking steps to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future,” said Christine Sun, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project who is representing Marlatt and Eggers. “Businesses should treat all of their customers with respect regardless of their sexual orientation.”
A video of Marlatt and Eggers telling the story of what happened to them as well as their complaint to the Human Relations Commission can be found at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/discrim/36781res20080916.html.
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mcdonalds-agr…
Fire Revives Palin Church’s ‘Ex-Gay’ Scandal
Sarah Palin and her church’s religious teachings are again making headlines — or at least propelling conversation.
The Alaska governor’s church, Wasilla Baptist Church, literally came under fire this weekend in what appears to be arson. And, considering the suspicious nature of the incident, one can’t help but wonder whether the church was specifically targeted because of Palin’s long history there. That’s one of the theories, of course, and has brought Palin’s right-leaning beliefs — and past scandals — back into the spotlight.
As Colin Powell pointed out last week, Palin was certainly a polarizing figure during her short stint on the campaign trail. She fired up supporters and burned up critics. But who would hate this woman enough to torch her church? Probably plenty of wackos, but some seem to be speculating that the “suspect class” can be narrowed a bit.
You may recall that last September, as people were just starting to examine Palin’s background, it came to light that her church had distributed a flyer for Love Won Out, a group that claims it can “cure” gay people. [There was also a scandal in which Palin was accused of asking her local library to remove gay-themed books from its shelves when she was mayor. She denied the charge.] Obviously gay people were not amused and called on Mrs. Palin to explain herself. It became a small thorn in her side, and one that Palin tried to avoid. Sure, the topic came up a bit, but it never became the headline grabber it could have during previous elections, when the culture wars raged. Well, the topic came up last night when Palin sat down with Fox News’s Greta van Susteren. See Fire Revives Palin Church’s ‘Ex-Gay‘ Scandal
Women on the Web, NY
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/fire-revives-…
