A San Francisco Bay-area financial services company has not yet ruled out Oklahoma City for a major office relocation, a vice president of a real estate search firm confirmed. A decision is expected in three to four weeks.
But Tom Maloney, vice president of California-based Staubach Co., would neither confirm nor deny that the 1,000-employee, AAA-rated client company's top executive is a lesbian who expressed concern over Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern's recent anti-homosexual statements, as has been the topic circulating among local business leaders.
Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, said the issue is a major concern the chamber is trying to address. He confirmed a Staubach consultant was troubled by Kern's comments during a recent visit to the city.
"He told us straight up … 'I cannot recommend to any of my clients that they should consider Oklahoma City because of that,'" Williams said. "When you have one of the nation's premier relocation experts making those statements, you should pay attention to that and not dismiss it.
"And that's immediately what happened: People said, 'Well, then tell them not to come here.' The problem with that is they (relocating firms) represent many of the Fortune 500 companies. And to be so dismissive of something that's a lot more sincere than people are giving credit, to me, shows a lack of understanding of what's really going on."
Um, what? Sorry, Roy, but the idea that Kern is sincere makes this worse, not better. We understand perfectly what's going on--you (or at least Kern and her supporters) don't want gays in Oklahoma. That means you can't complain when they decide not to move to Oklahoma, nor bring their jobs there.
The sad part is that this would hurt the citizens of Oklahoma and would do nothing to Kern, the person who deserves it. Ah, well.
Via Ed Brayton.
2 comments:
Actually, the Chamberr rep was saying that the homophobes didn't understand that these companies aren't going to come to a homophobic locale to do business. HR is to expensive and difficult to loose people to stupidity.
Loving the Hater
While Hating the Hate
by James Nimmo
(OKLAHOMA CITY) I found a link recently to a blog (www.bilerico.com) that contains a comment (http://tinyurl.com/4qdbph) written in reaction to reading the main story about the Oklahoma City chapter of PFLAG and their recording of Rep Sally Kern (http://tinyurl.com/2zbpgn) that catches Kern in her spider web of hubris and cant.
Like the author, I too, am very disappointed with the approach of "loving the hater while hating the hate."
Of course, I respect our supporters who use their close relationship with Jesus to try and gain support for LGBT citizens and other minorities who are used for verbal target practice in the war for suppression of civil rights.
I'm delighted the Oklahoma City PFLAG chapter was able to document the duplicity of Sally Kern and record with her permission the lies she later reported as irresponsibility on the part of PFLAG. This single incident should show you the arrogance and madness that is being passed off as legislative Republican leadership. Not one elected official in Oklahoma from either major party has come strongly to the defense and support of the LGBT taxpayers living in Oklahoma.
Had Kern used race, skin color, or ethnic origin as her subject I bet the rent she would be renewing her teaching certificate today and looking for a school that would hire her.
The First Amendment guarantees both sides the freedom to practice their respective religious viewpoints and the market place in which to talk about them.
However, this same First Amendment does NOT give either side permission to encode their religious viewpoints into CIVIL law. I feel this is where we miss the boat in establishing our birthright to equal treatment under judicial law, and not the ten laws of Deuteronomy.
There will always be a bible verse to trump the opposing bible verse resulting in a version of ping-pong skirmishes with Jesus as the referee.
The writer gives some specific examples of public, peaceful protest that we can engage in to show that LGBTs are neither the doormats nor the monsters our enemies make us to be.
It's odd that our suppressors are either afraid to be in the same room with us, fearing for their own bodily integrity, keeping their knees close together; or they dismiss us as dippy airheads, frivolous and irresponsible. How can we be both at the same time?
Their response shows more about the fiction in their minds then about the truth of our lives.
Until we get out of the religious justification business the more we'll be dragged into its historical quagmire. Look at the present wars being fought around the world and you'll see religious intolerance at the root.
Our LGBT equality will have to be established in the legislatures and the courthouses in all fifty states without religious prejudice tipping the scales of justice.
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