Friday, May 24, 2013

It’s the law

But can you claim that it is against your religion?

Two news articles caught my attention this week, one was about a landlord who has a transgender tenant and the other article is about how anti-discrimination laws infringe on religious freedom.

The first article is from the LA Times
Landlord must uphold transgender tenant's rights
It is illegal to make a tenant move out because of gender identity, even if others are uncomfortable. The landlord also must use the appropriate pronouns and stop harassment by other tenants.
May 03, 2013
By Martin Eichner
[…]
Answer: The applicable fair housing laws prohibit discrimination based on gender, which includes gender identity. As a landlord, you are obligated to treat each prospective or current tenant the same, without regard to their gender or gender identity.
[…]
You may not take adverse action against Michelle to satisfy the discriminatory demands of another tenant, even if it means you lose that tenant's business. Further, if you become aware of any other tenant harassing Michelle because of her gender identity, you have an obligation to take action to stop it.
Here in Connecticut and other states with gender inclusive anti-discrimination that cover public accommodation this is true for all housing. However, in the other states it only covers HUDS properties.

The other news article is in OneNewsNow,
Is the DOJ forcing workers to affirm immorality?
Charlie Butts,Jody Brown
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Liberty Counsel Action is accusing the Obama Department of Justice instructing its managers to affirm homosexuality and transgenderism in the work environment, arguing it will "boost the performance and productivity" of employees - regardless if they are "gay" or straight.
Okay, suppose we substitute another protected class for trans-people, gays and lesbians such as women. If it was rewrote as…
Liberty Counsel Action is accusing the Obama Department of Justice instructing its managers to affirm women in the work environment, arguing it will "boost the performance and productivity" of employees - regardless of their gender.
I think most people would say, “Whoa, you can’t discriminate against women!” But come back would be that they are not the same, the Bible says homosexuality is wrong and it doesn’t say anything about working with women. My answer would be there are religions that do say it is wrong for men and women to work together. Do we ignore their religious belief? What about a church that believes in White Supremacy (Yes folks there are religions that still think that), do we allow them to not hire blacks?

Once you start giving religious exemptions in the workplace you open a huge can of worms. So far the courts have seen the difference in religious neutral laws, laws like anti-discrimination statutes and the Social Security tax (You can read what I wrote about the various court rulings on my blog here).



1 comment:

  1. And that's just it. The Federal and New York state governments have stated that both Orthodox Jewish and Islamic businesses can not discriminate against fellow citizens simply because they dont observe the respective religions. Bus services, schools and common businesses over the past 10 years have been in court over these matters time and again yet when it's christians doing the exact same discrimination its often allowed to pass and stand. It's a true double standard that our founding fathers foresaw and would be appalled at.

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