Orlando McDonald’s – “We Do Not Hire Faggots”

Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund today filed a Complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations against an Orlando McDonald’s restaurant for refusing to hire 17-year-old Zikerria Bellamy because she is transgender.

On July 10, 2009, Ms. Bellamy applied online for a job at a McDonald’s restaurant in Orlando, Florida. On July 28, after managers at McDonald’s learned that Zikerria is transgender, she received a voicemail message from one of the managers telling her, “You will not get hired. We do not hire faggots.” She was never allowed to interview for a job.

“Zikerria should not have been denied a job just because she is transgender. Like everyone else, she deserved to be judged on her ability to do the job and not on who she is,” said TLDEF executive director and attorney Michael Silverman.

“I just wanted to earn to some money and was willing to work hard at this job. In the current economy, jobs are really hard to find. I never expected to be judged on who I am, instead of being judged on whether I can do the job,” said Ms. Bellamy.

More at: Focus On The Rainbow!

UPDATE!

An Orlando McDonald’s (MCD) has fired one of its managers after he told a 17-year-old job applicant (via voice mail), “You will not get hired. We do not hire faggots.”

Anti-Gay Employees Ain’t Lovin’ It

Courtesy of the Fairness Campaign:

McDonald’s Agrees To Training and Settlement After Staff Called Gay Customers “Faggots”

Super-Size Training For Management Offered For Kentucky Incident

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.

“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.”

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

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.

CONTACT: Michael Aldridge; Executive Director, ACLU of Kentucky  502-581-9746

Mormons Protests Church’s Gay Marriage Stance

From Yahoonews.com:

A group of Mormons who support gay marriage delivered protest letters and bundles of carnations to church headquarters Friday in an appeal to end the church’s support of a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California.

The group, called Sign for Something, disagrees with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ opposition to gay marriage and its efforts to boost Mormon involvement before the Nov. 4 election.

The church is part of a coalition of conservative groups backing Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman and thereby overturn the California Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

More than 40 people sang hymns as they made the delivery, which was accepted by a church spokeswoman.

Included in the packet is a petition signed by more than 400 people, including church members from around the world. It asks the church to “stop political organizing efforts and financial support of attempts to use government to restrict the secular and religious rights of gay and lesbian individuals.”

McDonald’s: Not Lovin’ It Anymore

According to MotownSports.com:

McDonald’s surrenders! Boycott declared over

Family group says fast-food giant agrees not to promote ‘gay’ agenda

A corporate executive for McDonald’s restaurants who had been on board of directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce has stepped down following a boycott of the chain organized by the pro-family American Family Association.

McDonald’s officials confirmed today to WND that Richard Ellis, who had been named to the “gay” chamber board after McDonald’s contributed $20,000 to the organization, “made a personal decision to step down” after he accepted a new position with McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada.

McDonald’s officials also told AFA the company has no plans to renew its membership in the special interest group when it expires in December.

“We appreciate the decision by McDonald’s to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations,” AFA chairman Donald E. Wildmon said in a prepared statement.

In a statement GayAgenda Received from McDonald’s:

“McDonald’s stands by and supports our people. Diversity and inclusion are integral components of our brand and our heritage. We continue to have strong employee networks throughout our company and will continue to align our brand with individuals and organizations that share our belief in supporting our people and the communities we serve.”

I received a later email from McDonald’s Corportation stating they “are not a member of the AFA” and do not plan on joining.

Right Wing TVC’s Degree of Hate is Heating Up – Way Up

Say what you will about the Traditional Values Coalition, they refuse to tone-down or in any way moderate their militantly anti-gay agenda – here they are weighing in on the right-wing boycott of McDonalds, complete with an attack on Levi Strauss for ending its funding of the Boy Scouts:

“McDonald’s has partnered with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC),” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “It also gave this activist group a $20,000 grant to support its efforts to influence corporate America.

“When my son bounds out of kindergarten at his school, a typical request is to go to ‘Old McDonald’s.’ It’s not about the cuisine, the first question he asks when we get there is which toy are they giving away that day. Now, we are settling for a lemonade at another restaurant because, as our son says aloud every time a McDonald’s commercial airs on television or as we drive past one, – ‘McDonald’s is bad,’” said Lafferty.

Read more at rightwingwatch.org.

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