In America? Columnist Steve Chapman has an
excellent piece
in the Chicago Tribune (free registration required) on the
sodomy law case now before the Supreme Court. He writes:
One night four years ago, sheriff's officers -- entered the dwelling and barged into a bedroom. But all they found was a couple enjoying a pastime commonly enjoyed by couples in their bedrooms, and I don't mean organizing the closet. You might guess that at this point, the cops would have blushed, apologized and left as fast as their feet would carry them. Wrong. They arrested the couple under the Texas anti-sodomy statute. "
For [Tyron] Garner and [John] Lawrence, there was the indignity of being jailed, hauled into court and fined for consensual acts carried out in private. On top of that, their lawyers note, they are now disqualified or restricted "from practicing dozens of professions in Texas, from physician to athletic trainer to bus driver." If they move to some states, they'll have to register as sex offenders.
And there are those who claim these laws have no real impact on our lives.
Shareholders Rule. Lockheed Martin Corp. is one of the world's largest defense contractors with some 125,000 employees. That's why it's significant that the company has now changed its employment policy to include a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation, and will also begin offering domestic partnership benefits sometime next year. According to the Rocky Mountain News, thanks goes to an ambitious group of college students who lobbied Lockheed's shareholders.
In another corporate development, the board of CBRL Group Inc.,
the parent company of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores
restaurants, has voted to add sexual orientation to the company's
non-discrimination policy. As reported on the Gay Financial
Network site:
Cracker Barrel drew national attention in 1991 when it instituted a company policy that called for terminating employees "whose sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society." At least 11 workers were fired as a result.. -- [But this year] A shareholder proposal to add sexual orientation to the company's non-discrimination policy would have received a majority of the votes cast Nov. 26.
Remember whenever you hear corporations vilified as dark,
nefarious powers unto themselves that not only do they need to
please the consuming public in order succeed, but they are also
owned and ultimately responsive to the will of their shareholders,
who can organize, petition, and vote for policy changes. Talk about
"economic democracy," we have a far higher degree than ever existed
under state socialism!
--Stephen H. Miller