Our Views: La. should enact worker bias ban
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Gov. Bobby Jindal kept a campaign promise to end a policy protecting gay state employees from arbitrary dismissals from their jobs because of sexual orientation.
That he did so was not a surprise: Gov. Kathleen Blanco had issued the executive order that included gay employees’ job protections.
It also required a nondiscrimination pledge for businesses selling goods and services to the state.
Jindal said during the 2007 campaign that he would not renew the order.
The governor ought to have recognized, as a manager of the state’s work force, that it makes no sense to say that a worker’s job could be at risk because of his private sexual orientation.
Gay employees, contrary to the governor’s statement on the issue, are not covered by existing federal or state discrimination laws. That’s not good for business. It’s not good for the state’s image as a place where all who want to contribute to society should have an equal shot at doing so.
We defy the governor to find a credible economic development expert who would say anti-gay discrimination is a wise policy.
But leave aside the issue of a supposedly pro-business Republican ignoring the overwhelming trend in American business toward a nondiscriminatory workplace. We worry about the thinness of Jindal’s other stated reasoning on this issue.
The governor said he worried that churches might run afoul of an anti-discrimination policy.
The governor’s staff — creative, to say the least, in the legal department in other areas — easily could have made some sort of exemption for faith-based organizations part of a renewed executive order.
We would have more respect for Jindal if he’d said outright that he doesn’t believe gay people should have the same right to make a living as straight people.
The governor’s action ought to spur the Legislature to pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination law for all Louisiana workers.
That he did so was not a surprise: Gov. Kathleen Blanco had issued the executive order that included gay employees’ job protections.
It also required a nondiscrimination pledge for businesses selling goods and services to the state.
Jindal said during the 2007 campaign that he would not renew the order.
The governor ought to have recognized, as a manager of the state’s work force, that it makes no sense to say that a worker’s job could be at risk because of his private sexual orientation.
Gay employees, contrary to the governor’s statement on the issue, are not covered by existing federal or state discrimination laws. That’s not good for business. It’s not good for the state’s image as a place where all who want to contribute to society should have an equal shot at doing so.
We defy the governor to find a credible economic development expert who would say anti-gay discrimination is a wise policy.
But leave aside the issue of a supposedly pro-business Republican ignoring the overwhelming trend in American business toward a nondiscriminatory workplace. We worry about the thinness of Jindal’s other stated reasoning on this issue.
The governor said he worried that churches might run afoul of an anti-discrimination policy.
The governor’s staff — creative, to say the least, in the legal department in other areas — easily could have made some sort of exemption for faith-based organizations part of a renewed executive order.
We would have more respect for Jindal if he’d said outright that he doesn’t believe gay people should have the same right to make a living as straight people.
The governor’s action ought to spur the Legislature to pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination law for all Louisiana workers.
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