Thread: London. Whose rights are being violated?

So, imagine, I own a small business and there's a man who wants to work for me. I interview him and the decision is wholly mine. I can take him or not without explaining anything, isn't it so? What if he happens to be a gay who will then sue me for violating his rights? Isn't it absurd?

Originally Posted by Ramil

So, imagine, I own a small business and there's a man who wants to work for me. I interview him and the decision is wholly mine. I can take him or not without explaining anything, isn't it so? What if he happens to be a gay who will then sue me for violating his rights? Isn't it absurd?

Well actually, in the U.S. there is no federal statute prohibiting private sector sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity for civilian nonreligious employers with over 15 employees has been proposed several times, yet never passed.

There are several state that have laws though and I believe there is some coverage for Federal Government Employees.

So, in your case, as long as you are in the right state, you would be free to not hire the person simply because he is gay and he could NOT file suit. Even if the law was passed as it has been purposed, if you have under 15 employees, he would be out of luck.

Of course, this would probably not stop him from targeting your company as an awful place and bashing it all over the Internet. Even if you had a legit reason for NOT hiring him.

Originally Posted by Ramil

So, imagine, I own a small business and there's a man who wants to work for me. I interview him and the decision is wholly mine. I can take him or not without explaining anything, isn't it so? What if he happens to be a gay who will then sue me for violating his rights? Isn't it absurd?

Moreover, if a gay sued someone for not hiring him, why wouldn't I sue that employer if s/he didn't hire me as a straight person? If the gay won the case and I didn't, that would really violate my rights, and I could call it discrimination against people of my sexual orientation as well. So, from now on, everyone's gonna be employed. Look, maybe gay rights fighters are latent commies? How do you like it?