This is progress, wouldn’t you say?
Cool. I wonder if Target (where I shop) offer its employees the same protection.
I was very startled and happy to read this on the front page of today’s Times. Can Cracker Barrel be far behind?
Why the very name, Cracker Barrel, is an outrage!
I demand they change it!
Actualy, I’m glad such a huge store is “coming out” on this issue. Maybe others will look at themselves, make needed changes. Whatever they may be.
So now gay and lesbian folks now can work at Wal-Mart and have the right to unpaid overtime and getting fired for talking about unions? That’s wonderful!
Yeah, I have to say that while I was really glad to see this this morning, I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to actually HAPPEN. Especially considering how so many Wal-Marts are in areas that are not known for their enlightened attitudes to all things not conservative Christian America.
I just hope I’m wrong.
It has already happened, Mama Tiger. The policy is has been changed.
AskNott, gay people have always had the right to unpaid overtime and getting fired for talking about unions. With this new addition to Wal*Mart’s policy, however, they’re now protected under they antidiscrimination section the policy.
The inevitable reply from the PWOA (Professional Whiners of America)
Unable to accept the concept that somebody one disagrees with may still do good things, they trivialize even the best of moves, such as this one.
“Wal Mart? They’re on the BAD list! I must say bad things about them!” Mr’s Moore and Limbaugh have a seat saved for you.
Good for you, Wal Mart.
Now the question I ask - will this cost me more money when I purchase stuff from Walmart?
Shouldn’t, but even if it did aren’t those pennies well spent?
Because once one group’s concerns are addressed that makes it OK to forget about everybody else’s concerns. Please.
So Wal-Mart has made it against policy to fire people for being gay. Good for them. Wal-Mart has a long way to go before it can be considered a just company. It needs to stop union-busting, it needs to stop forcing mandatory overtime, it needs to stop imposing its censorious values on entertainment products and it needs to stop refusing to stock contraceptives in its pharmacies, if it is doing these things, all of which have been alleged in the not-too-recent past. And it needs to extend medical benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees. To put it another way, would Wal-Mart have extended this policy had there not been agitation on the subject? Should they have sat back and said “weel, they have race and religion and whatever in the policy, that’s good enough”?
Oh and Eve? Do try to keep up with the times, dear. Cracker Barrel caved last year.
I still wonder if some of the small-town Wal-Marts I have been in will actually enforce this new company policy, or whether they will find other ways around it. It’s a subtle form of discrimination in many cases – you can just not hire someone who’s gay but say it’s because of some other nondiscriminatory factor.
I have to say that the worst cases of bac public behavior I’ve seen in recent years have been in Wal-Marts – and often from store employees. Like following around customers that look “different” and laughing at them. It’s rude and cruel, and it happens regularly. Ask any dwarf you know; I’ll bet it’s happened to them in Wal-Mart.
Call me a cynic, but I don’t see Wal-Mart changing its EMPLOYEES’ attitudes even if it changes corporate policy. THAT is what I was talking about.