Today, President Obama’s Executive Order on LGBT Workplace Discrimination goes into effect. It prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Bob Witeck, Walmart's LGBT consultant, gets corporations on the workers' side
When Walmart sided with gay rights by saying that Arkansas’s religious freedom reformation act sends the “wrong message”, it surprised many. The nation’s largest employer is more commonly associated with low wages and red-state religious values than with LGBT rights.
But in working with Bob Witeck, the DC-based head of the gay and lesbian-focused communications group Witeck Communications, Walmart addressed charges by critics that it ought to put its money where its mouth is, and lobby to avert dangerous anti-gay legislation in its own backyard.
Like most consultants, Witeck doesn’t like to say too much about what he and his clients talk about. But in an interview with the Guardian, he offered some insight into how corporations have evolved in this regard. Read More
New Zealand sets new standard for LGBTI inclusion in the workplace
Standards New Zealand, the operating arm of the country’s Standards Council, has published a new guide on diversity. The latest guides – produced in consultation with agencies including Rainbow Wellington, Affinity Services, gQ Network, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, and others – is Rainbow-inclusive workplaces: A standard for gender and sexual diversity in employment.
In a statement SNZ said, ‘International research shows that people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, takatāpui, queer, and intersex (LGBTTQI) communities still face discrimination and exclusion in the workforce; in recruitment, retention, training, and advancement opportunities.' -- Takatāpui is the Māori (indigenous New Zealand people's) word meaning a devoted partner of the same sex.
‘There is also research that indicates that workplaces that support and encourage staff to be authentic and bring the whole of themselves to work perform better than those where people feel they must hide a central aspect of themselves.’ Read More
US: Most Americans side with gays in religious freedom disputes
A majority of Americans believe businesses should not be allowed to refuse services based on their religious beliefs in the wake of controversies in Indiana and Arkansas over gay rights and religious freedom, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. It also found that 52% of Americans support allowing same-sex couples to marry, far more than the 32% who oppose it.
The survey results suggest a split over the issue between Americans and some of the politicians who represent them. Read more
US: LGBT battle far from over as religious freedom bills multiply
The swift and overwhelming backlash that helped modify the religious freedom bills – spurred in particular by tech and business leaders – revealed a new front in the broader US culture wars over LGBT rights. Even as marriage equality emerges a winner in the national battle, other hard-won LGBT rights are being attacked under the guise of religious liberty.
Measures resembling those in Indiana and Arkansas have multiplied across the country – and the majority have garnered less attention. Twelve states besides Arkansas and Indiana have proposed religious freedom laws over the past year. The bills failed to pass in five states, but are still pending in seven. Read More
US: Nationwide boycott leads to "Religious Freedom" bill amendment
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a revised religious freedom bill that had been approved by lawmakers earlier after language was added that says the law cannot be used to discriminate. Critics of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act called the law discriminatory, allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBT people.
Some state governments had banned the use of taxpayer money to fund city employees’ travel to Indiana, while some celebrities canceled upcoming appearances in the state. Read More
Twitter's New Threat Reporting Tool Is a Useless Punt
Twitter, a service that admits it sucks at dealing with trolls, just announced a new tool for reporting harassment to the police. It looks like a good step at first glance—if you ignore the fact that it's a responsibility dodging, spineless fix that's highly unlikely to help anyone being harassed or threatened Twitter. This is a PR stunt, not a solution.
There is middle ground to be explored between castrating Twitter's capabilities as a free speech machine and introducing measures that actually counter abuse. Twitter could, for instance, employ proactive abuse moderators. These moderators could cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies and help people getting threatened make contact with police, not by giving them a copy of their complaint but by actually setting up contact. These abuse moderators could keep tabs on IP addresses known to spawn more than one abusive account. Read More
Facebook moves to curb terror, hate speech with update to its ‘community standards’
Nudity, hate speech, self-harm, dangerous organisations, bullying and harassment, sexual violence and exploitation, criminal activity, violence and graphic content are among the areas covered by the updated guidelines.
The move comes with Facebook and other social media struggling with defining acceptable content and freedom of expression, and with these networks increasingly linked to radical extremism and violence, including the posting and sharing of video and photographs of violent hate crimes. Read More
Russia: IKEA shuts down magazine to avoid violating Gay Propaganda Ban
IKEA will shutter the website for its magazine, IKEA Family Live, in Russia to avoid running afoul of the country’s ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors.
“When we do business, we observe the legislation of the countries where we work, therefore to avoid violations, we have taken the decision to stop publishing the magazine in Russia,” IKEA said in a statement carried by AFP.
The Swedish furniture chain has featured same-sex couples and their families in the magazine, which is published in 25 countries. It came under fire internationally in 2013 for excluding a story on Clara and Kirsty, a British lesbian couple, from its Russian edition after the propaganda ban was passed. Activists held a kiss-in at the Brooklyn, New York, IKEA store to protest the move. Read More
Facebook further expands profiles’ “gender” box, lets users type anything
Facebook's official "Diversity" account announced another sweeping change to the gender selection on users' profiles. Starting today, users of Facebook's English sites can type pretty much whatever they want into a custom box.
"We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way," the unnamed Diversity account holder said.
This change follows in the footsteps of Facebook's decision last year to expand its gender options, which were previously limited to male, female, or no response. Just like the last update, users must type their preferred gender descriptor after choosing "other," and Facebook will suggest terms from its prior list like "androgynous" and "gender fluid." Read More
Apple unveils racially diverse emoji in 5 skin tones and same-sex couples
Apple is adding racially diverse emoji to its OS X desktop operating system.
The software's emoji keyboard will include characters in five skin tones based on the Fitzpatrick scale, a recognised standard used by dermatologists that moves the icons away from previously much-derided racial stereotypes. Read More
India: Snapdeal has just been taken to court for selling vibrators
A Delhi lawyer has just taken e-commerce giant Snapdeal to court for selling sex accessories because he wants to test the limits of India’s anti-homosexuality law. Suhaas Joshi, an advocate at India’s Supreme Court, has filed a complaint for abetting gay sex and for exhibiting obscene products.
Joshi’s complaint, explains that products—such as anal lubes and massagers that are shaped like the male phallus—violate the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, along with other acts such as section 292, 292 A, 293 and 294 which prohibit obscenity in public.
Section 377 is the controversial anti-gay Indian law that criminalises any intercourse that is “against the order of nature.” The Delhi high court had earlier decriminalised the act, but India’s Supreme Court subsequently overturned the decision and has left it to the Indian parliament to take a decision on repealing section 377. Read More