[Prs Release: Cracker Barrel's Anti-Gay Policy] - UNT Digal Library

Contents:

• COMPANY OTS GAY WORKERS, THEN RENSIRS
• FLORIDA MAN SU CRACKER BARREL, CLAIMS GAY DISCRIMATN
• [PRS RELEASE: CRACKER BARREL'S ANTI-GAY POLICY]
• “BIGOTRY WAS THE BLUE PLATE SPECIAL”: HOW CRACKER BARREL WENT OM ANTI-GAY TO ANGERG THE GOP
• GAY RIGHTS GROUPS TAKE AIM AT RTRANT CHA THAT'S HOT ON WALL STREET
• A FIGHT OVER GAY EMPLOYE WILL ALMOST CERTALY H THE SUPREME COURT

COMPANY OTS GAY WORKERS, THEN RENSIRS

Pani on their polici toward gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr employe, nsumers and vtors.

Of Bethda, Md., announced two weeks ago that would add sexual orientatn to s non-discrimatn policy and beg to provi health surance benefs to gay employe' domtic partners. ” At least ne gay employe were fired, the New York Tim reported Febary 1991. The policy was attacked by gay rights activists.

FLORIDA MAN SU CRACKER BARREL, CLAIMS GAY DISCRIMATN

Robert Bray, spokman for the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, said the policy was unprecented bee while other pani would try to disguise termatn of gay employe, Cracker Barrel “dified and stutnalized bigotry and discrimatn. ” By March 1991, founr Dan Evs had apologized and said the pany had gotten rid of the policy, though Cracker Barrel’s board would not vote to ban discrimatn agast gay employe until 2002.

In 1991, Cracker Barrel had a policy allowg managers to fire gay employe.

At least 11 gay and lbian employe were fired unr the policy. New York be the sixth state to bar gay & transgenr ‘panic’ fens for murr.

[PRS RELEASE: CRACKER BARREL'S ANTI-GAY POLICY]

Gog public about firg gay employe. Cracker Barrel was hirg 1991, but thanks to a newly implemented HR policy, they were only hirg people who weren't gay.

The policy didn't jt forbid hirg gay employe, but they also fired at least ne current employe bee of their sexual orientatn.

“BIGOTRY WAS THE BLUE PLATE SPECIAL”: HOW CRACKER BARREL WENT OM ANTI-GAY TO ANGERG THE GOP

In 2013, Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson went on rerd wh some serly ntroversial anti-gay ments that led to his spensn om the show. They weighed on the si of everyone who was offend by the remarks and Robertson's anti-gay rhetoric. It said would no longer employ homosexuals, and at least ne gay employe were Evs, chairman of the pany, was quoted today The Tennsean Nashville as sayg the policy had been rcd.

" First Time to See DiscrimatnAbout 200 south, Tifton, Ga., Wylie Petty, 21, had been a waer at the Cracker Barrel off Interstate 75 until last week, when he was dismissed for beg gay.

GAY RIGHTS GROUPS TAKE AIM AT RTRANT CHA THAT'S HOT ON WALL STREET

"I told them I was gay two weeks after I was hired a year and half ago, " Mr. "Lynn Cothren, chairman of the Atlanta chapter of Queer Natn, a gay rights group, said ne Cracker Barrel employe had notified his anizatn of their the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force strongly protted Cracker Barrel's policy sce learng of om gay managers at the pany, civil liberti lawyers said there was ltle they uld do most stat to stop such hirg practic.

"It's outrageo and credible, " said William Rubenste, director of the Lbian and Gay Rights Project for the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn, "but 's fair to say that as a general matter would be very difficult to challenge the discharg other than one of those plac where there is a law specifilly prohibg . One sectn is outfted like a tradnal untry store, plete wh pot-bellied stove; the other sectn, hog the rtrant, has a large stone fireplace wh wrought-iron hooks and hangg pany employs 9, 000 to 10, 000 people, acrdg to the Natnal Rtrant News, a tra announcg earlier this year that homosexual employe would be dismissed, a pany memorandum said Cracker Barrel was found on a "ncept of tradnal Amerin valu. 'Well-Intentned Over-Reactn'Robert Bray, a spokman for the gay and lbian task force, said that on Feb.

Our recent posn on the employment of homosexuals a limed number of stor may have been a well-tentned over-reactn to the perceived valu of our ctomers and their fort levels wh the dividuals. Bray said retractn amounted to a "further famg of the gay muny.

A FIGHT OVER GAY EMPLOYE WILL ALMOST CERTALY H THE SUPREME COURT

" he, outsi the Cracker Barrel this small town 20 wt of Atlanta, ctomers generally disagreed wh the policy of dismissg gay workers, though one man, who refed to give his name, said he and others who he nsired "average ctomers" of the cha "don't feel fortable about homosexuals. "But Clarice Thompson, who liv adjacent Carroll County, said the dismissal of homosexuals seemed outmod and out of step wh the tim. "A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 22 of the Natnal edn wh the headle: Company Ots Gay Workers, Then Rensirs.

In 2013, the cha buckled unr prsure after pullg Duck Dynasty products om s gift shop bee a st member of the realy TV show had ma homophobic remarks a GQ terview. Wh Ameri's top urt strikg down key portns of the Defense of Marriage Act and the ary repealg s "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy recently, you'd thk that gay people this untry would tch a break at work. But not John Bostick apparently, an employee at a Branton Crack Barrel who is sug his employer for allegedly discrimatg agast him bee he is gay.

In another stance, Bostick alleg that the Donahue harassed him while speakg to four ctomers at a table, believg that the ctomers were homosexual, sayg to Bostick, "Tell your buddi, 'e that's what you ll each other, to vis somewhere else.