The posters were meant to have an impact, and that they certainly did.
As part of a diversity campaign at Hewlett-Packard’s Boise, Idaho, office, the five posters each featured the face of an HP employee. Beneath the image was a single-word caption: “Black,” “Blonde,” “Old,” “Gay,” or “Hispanic.” “Diversity is our strength,” went the slogan of this diversity campaign.
The way one employee saw it, however, rather than fostering acceptance, the posters targeted heterosexuals and fundamentalist Christians like himself who believed that homosexuality was a sin. Richard Peterson, an employee with 21 years’ seniority, responded to the campaign by posting at his cubicle Biblical scriptures that, he later said in court, were meant to be hurtful to gay employees.
When his managers asked him to take the scriptures down, he said he would comply only if the company took down the poster of the gay employee. Peterson was eventually terminated for insubordination. In response, he sued the company for religious discrimination.
Peterson lost at both the district court and upon appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case illustrates the potential for impassioned opposition when an HR initiative explicitly addresses a gay and lesbian constituency.
Canadians differ quite markedly from Americans in their views on gay relationships and matters of faith. A 2000 survey by University of Lethbridge sociologist Reg Bibby showed that only 32 percent of Canadians said same-sex relations were always wrong compared to 59 per cent of Americans; and according to an April, 2004, Gallup poll, 45 per cent of Americans consider themselves “evangelical” or “born again.” About 12 per cent of Canadians identify themselves as evangelical, according to a 2003 Ipsos-Reid poll.
But that doesn’t mean the Peterson case can’t happen here. Just recently, the Calgary-based Canadian Family Action Coalition launched a campaign to boycott the Royal Bank of Canada. The reason was a pilot campaign organized by a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees at the bank, meant to send the message that homophobia has no place at the RBC workplace.
Called the Safe Space program, the campaign encouraged workers to display a rainbow triangle sticker at their desks or cubicles to declare that space a “safe place” for gays and lesbians. The campaign lasted less than the three months it was scheduled for and targeted the 2,000 Toronto-based workers in service delivery for Central Canada.
The Canadian Family Action Coalition saw the campaign as “an ill-conceived idea and an attempt to label certain employees as ‘unsupportive’ or ‘homophobic,’” said the group’s executive director Ken Rushfeldt.
Scott Armstrong, founder of the Toronto-based Pride Employment Network, a networking group for gays and lesbians, said he sees the boycott as an isolated incident. At the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, he said, faculty are encouraged to post similar signs declaring an office to be a gay-positive space.
The City of Toronto, as another example, has a diversity poster that reads: “Your customer, your co-worker, your teacher, your mother, your brother, your doctor, your friend, your child, your boss could be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered, two spirited…” There hasn’t been any kind of backlash against such programs, said Armstrong.
One gay employee of RBC, who asked not to be named, said the Safe Space initiative was an effort to encourage people to be out at work. “People in the financial industry tend to be very closeted,” he said, adding he’s proud to work for RBC, thanks to similar campaigns to make gay and lesbian employees feel welcome.
“It’s unfortunate that a bigoted group would take this kind of action,” said the employee, adding that he feared other companies would be discouraged from organizing similar initiatives by the negative publicity around this campaign.
RBC declined to comment on the case, saying only that the pilot program is under review. At Hewlett-Packard, however, spokesperson Rob Ireland cited the appeal court’s decision and said the company has been vindicated for its stance on diversity.
“Hewlett-Packard’s efforts to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals in its workplace were entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of our civil rights statutes,” wrote the Ninth Circuit appeals court judges.
Among Hewlett-Packard’s core values are mutual respect, trust and dignity, “all of which go beyond tolerance, but tolerance is a minimum for entry,” said Ireland. “Those values are still in place. They’re still the bedrock to our having a diverse, productive and fully engaged workforce.”
Ireland didn’t know whether the posters are still in use, but he added: “We have a fairly comprehensive diversity campaign that’s ongoing. For instance, we were yet again a sponsor of this year’s pride parade in Toronto. We certainly have not recused ourselves from any kind of diversity initiative,” including those initiatives that explicitly welcome gays and lesbians.
“They are an important and highly contributing portion of HP’s workforce.”
As part of a diversity campaign at Hewlett-Packard’s Boise, Idaho, office, the five posters each featured the face of an HP employee. Beneath the image was a single-word caption: “Black,” “Blonde,” “Old,” “Gay,” or “Hispanic.” “Diversity is our strength,” went the slogan of this diversity campaign.
The way one employee saw it, however, rather than fostering acceptance, the posters targeted heterosexuals and fundamentalist Christians like himself who believed that homosexuality was a sin. Richard Peterson, an employee with 21 years’ seniority, responded to the campaign by posting at his cubicle Biblical scriptures that, he later said in court, were meant to be hurtful to gay employees.
When his managers asked him to take the scriptures down, he said he would comply only if the company took down the poster of the gay employee. Peterson was eventually terminated for insubordination. In response, he sued the company for religious discrimination.
Peterson lost at both the district court and upon appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case illustrates the potential for impassioned opposition when an HR initiative explicitly addresses a gay and lesbian constituency.
Canadians differ quite markedly from Americans in their views on gay relationships and matters of faith. A 2000 survey by University of Lethbridge sociologist Reg Bibby showed that only 32 percent of Canadians said same-sex relations were always wrong compared to 59 per cent of Americans; and according to an April, 2004, Gallup poll, 45 per cent of Americans consider themselves “evangelical” or “born again.” About 12 per cent of Canadians identify themselves as evangelical, according to a 2003 Ipsos-Reid poll.
But that doesn’t mean the Peterson case can’t happen here. Just recently, the Calgary-based Canadian Family Action Coalition launched a campaign to boycott the Royal Bank of Canada. The reason was a pilot campaign organized by a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees at the bank, meant to send the message that homophobia has no place at the RBC workplace.
Called the Safe Space program, the campaign encouraged workers to display a rainbow triangle sticker at their desks or cubicles to declare that space a “safe place” for gays and lesbians. The campaign lasted less than the three months it was scheduled for and targeted the 2,000 Toronto-based workers in service delivery for Central Canada.
The Canadian Family Action Coalition saw the campaign as “an ill-conceived idea and an attempt to label certain employees as ‘unsupportive’ or ‘homophobic,’” said the group’s executive director Ken Rushfeldt.
Scott Armstrong, founder of the Toronto-based Pride Employment Network, a networking group for gays and lesbians, said he sees the boycott as an isolated incident. At the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, he said, faculty are encouraged to post similar signs declaring an office to be a gay-positive space.
The City of Toronto, as another example, has a diversity poster that reads: “Your customer, your co-worker, your teacher, your mother, your brother, your doctor, your friend, your child, your boss could be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered, two spirited…” There hasn’t been any kind of backlash against such programs, said Armstrong.
One gay employee of RBC, who asked not to be named, said the Safe Space initiative was an effort to encourage people to be out at work. “People in the financial industry tend to be very closeted,” he said, adding he’s proud to work for RBC, thanks to similar campaigns to make gay and lesbian employees feel welcome.
“It’s unfortunate that a bigoted group would take this kind of action,” said the employee, adding that he feared other companies would be discouraged from organizing similar initiatives by the negative publicity around this campaign.
RBC declined to comment on the case, saying only that the pilot program is under review. At Hewlett-Packard, however, spokesperson Rob Ireland cited the appeal court’s decision and said the company has been vindicated for its stance on diversity.
“Hewlett-Packard’s efforts to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals in its workplace were entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of our civil rights statutes,” wrote the Ninth Circuit appeals court judges.
Among Hewlett-Packard’s core values are mutual respect, trust and dignity, “all of which go beyond tolerance, but tolerance is a minimum for entry,” said Ireland. “Those values are still in place. They’re still the bedrock to our having a diverse, productive and fully engaged workforce.”
Ireland didn’t know whether the posters are still in use, but he added: “We have a fairly comprehensive diversity campaign that’s ongoing. For instance, we were yet again a sponsor of this year’s pride parade in Toronto. We certainly have not recused ourselves from any kind of diversity initiative,” including those initiatives that explicitly welcome gays and lesbians.
“They are an important and highly contributing portion of HP’s workforce.”
