I pit Stephen Sorenson

[CutterJohn]

Fuck you Steve.
Email I got from the CEO of the temp service I work for…

To Our Valued Associate Employees:

This is my impassioned plea to join me in Voting YES on Proposition 8.

I realize this is an unusual step. And I know we don’t usually exchange email. HOWEVER! This election affords us the challenge of setting a course on how we define our society. It’s a challenge we can’t ignore. And it’s a challenge I can’t be silent about!

Gay Marriage is an issue that generates some strong emotion. So I’m wading into deep water.

But, our democratic process relies on communication and persuasion.

I note my C.E.O. peers in many high profile companies are also speaking out on the issue.

Please take a minute and review my thoughts—and then please do your civic part – and VOTE!

Thanks for your time and your consideration.

---

<contact info removed --Giraffe>

Fuck you for using your authority to promote a message of hate and intolerance. Fuck you simply for being hateful and intolerant when you have absolutely no cause to worry about anything ever again.
Seriously… Is this even legal?

[Punoqllads]

@CutterJohn

Seriously… Is this even legal?

Yep.

[Captain_Carrot]

I like how he gives absolutely no reason to vote for it. At all. He just says “do it!”

[Revtim]

Yeah, at least throw in some horseshit about how it threatens hetero marriage and results in Nazis riding dinosaurs down main street.

[DanBlather]

I just sent him this:

Steve,

It has come to my attention that you sent out an email to your employees urging them to vote for Proposition 8. While it is entirely within your rights to do so, please be informed that I will never consider The Select Family of Staffing Companies when sourcing temporary workers. To do so would be an insult to my many fine LGBT employees .

Sincerley,

Dan Blather

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I just emailed him too.

Steve,

I recently was made aware that you used your position as CEO to urge your employees to vote YES on California’s Prop 8 ballot question.

Rest assured that I will never utilize your company’s services, and I will urge others to do the same.

Your message of intolerance and bigotry is disgusting, and your use of your position to spread it is offensive. I hope that every GLBT employee walks off the job, and I hope your company suffers an economic backlash that makes you feel as rotten as you have made others feel.

It almost unfathomable that an employer could have such disdain for the needs of what I am sure is a sizable percentage of his work force.

Not that you will have that work force for very much longer. I am sure that your business will suffer once this makes its way onto the internet, and everyone can see your true colors.

<name redacted --Giraffe>
Straight Against 8

[Giraffe]

I’ve removed the contact information from the OP. From the Forum Rules:

@Pit Forum Rules

Do not post contact information (email, phone, mailing address, etc.) to facilitate a campaign for/against a person, group, or issue.

We don’t want the board used to hassle people or groups of people. You can urge people to write their Congressperson or other political leaders, but let people find the contact information themselves. Don’t post it here.

[CutterJohn]

>_<

Sorry about that… Didn’t even occur to me.

[Miller]

I sent my own email to Mr. Sorensen before the OP got edited, and he replied to me today. This could be very interesting.

[Captain_Amazing]

Putting aside my disagreement with his cause, the election was a week ago, and you live in Iowa. So why is he sending you this, and why now?

[DiosaBellissima]

@Miller

I sent my own email to Mr. Sorensen before the OP got edited, and he replied to me today. This could be very interesting.

Well, you can’t just leave it at that. What was the exchange?

[Miller]

Me:

Dear Mr. Sorensen,

It’s recently been brought to my attention that you have, in your role as Chairman and CEO of the Select Family of Staffing Companies, urged your employees to support the passage of the discriminatory Proposition 8 initiative in California. While I would love to inform you that, as a result of your actions, I intend to never engage in your company’s services, the reality is that I am not in a position to use them in the first place, making any threat of a boycott empty, at best. So instead, I want to ask you a question: Why? What have we ever done to you, to warrant an act of such spite and cruelty that you would take it upon yourself to dissolve our families and sunder our vows of marriage? What have you gained by voting for this act, that justifies the pain you have inflicted?

Anxiously awaiting your response,

[Miller]

Him:

[Miller],

Who are you?

How do I know you? Or someone who knows you?

I’d be happy to have a discussion with you on the topic and would be pleased to discuss it over the phone with you if you’d like.

My beliefs are deeply held, but I rigorously dispute your allegations of spite or cruelty. My thinking on the matter is powerfully influenced by my strong faith based beliefs surrounding the creation and purpose of life-- but my thinking is also colored by my “first hand” real life (and death) experiences with friends and close blood relatives in my immediate family who practice (or did when they were alive) a gay lifestyle.

I don’t expect much to be gained from a “debate” or “war of words”, but I will say this entire episode has caused me to have more conversations with gay and lesbian people than ever in my life. And I will also say that my thinking is expanded and my understanding of the gay/lesbian perspective is broadening.

If you would like to engage in a mutual exchange of perspectives, with the objective of achieving greater understanding—I’m all for it.

I’m traveling over the next few days, but I can connect late in the week or over the weekend.

Best~

Me again:

Hi, Steve. Glad to see your response. I’m not surprised by your denial of spite or cruelty in voting yes on Proposition 8. Most of the its supporters that I’ve talked to have made similar denials. But how else can you describe an action undertaken with the certain knowledge that it will cause significant pain to other people, and which returns nothing of value to the actor? What have you gained by voting yes on 8? Has it made you richer? Safer? More secure? There is no purpose to the proposition except to affirm that homosexuals do not deserve to be treated as equals in this society. It is a pure act of discrimination, with no more valid a social purpose than mandating seperate “colored” waterfountains.

You say that your opinion on this subject is influenced by your religious beliefs. Can you expand on what those beliefs are, and why you feel that they should have the force of law behind them? I’m not a relgious man myself: why should the law require me to observe your religious beliefs, especially in the most intimate and private areas of my life?

I’m heartened to learn that you are talking about this issue with other people in the gay community, and that you are willing to listen to our views. I look forward to your reply.

-[Miller]

[Cluricaun]

@Miller

I sent my own email to Mr. Sorensen before the OP got edited, and he replied to me today. This could be very interesting.

Of all the people on Earth he could have chosen to engage in debate with, it warms my soul to know that he’s chosen Miller. My sympathies to Mr. Sorenson.

[Miller]

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Cluricaun

Of all the people on Earth he could have chosen to engage in debate with, it warms my soul to know that he’s chosen Miller. My sympathies to Mr. Sorenson.

Ditto.

[Cisco]

this entire episode has caused me to have more conversations with gay and lesbian people than ever in my life. And I will also say that my thinking is expanded and my understanding of the gay/lesbian perspective is broadening.

If you would like to engage in a mutual exchange of perspectives, with the objective of achieving greater understanding—I’m all for it.

I’m traveling over the next few days, but I can connect late in the week or over the weekend.

Best~

Wow, sunlight really is a wonderful disinfectant. Great job so far, Miller.

[dropzone]

@Giraffe

I’ve removed the contact information from the OP. From the Forum Rules:

AFTER you sent yours, I see. :rolleyes: Not like it makes Select Staffing or Mr Sorenson invisible to Google.

[dropzone]

@Miller

Him: "If you would like to engage in a mutual exchange of perspectives, with the objective of achieving greater understanding—I’m all for it.

“I’m traveling over the next few days, but I can connect late in the week or over the weekend.”

I think he’s hitting on you.

[Cervaise]

Send him this: Keith Olbermann’s impassioned defense of the right of two people to care about each other.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Cervaise

Send him this: Keith Olbermann’s impassioned defense of the right of two people to care about each other.

Damn, KO rocks. IMO he’s one of the most intelligent, forceful, powerful speakers and commentators around today.

That was an amazing essay, and an inspiring and impassioned delivery.