For the past several years, Ford Motor Company has earned perfect scores on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, so you’d think that the automaker would be a staunch advocate for LGBT equality.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case in Missouri, where two business groups oppose amending the state’s Human Rights statute to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Ford is affiliated with one of those groups, Associated Industries of Missouri.
Why does AIM oppose protections for LGBT persons? According to executive director, Ray McCarty:
[E]mployees not in the LGBT community could claim to be gay or transgender if they anticipate being fired and file a discrimination lawsuit against their employers. Unlike gender, race or disability, McCarty said it’s difficult for employers to know if their employees are in the LGBT community. Therefore, the burden of proof — knowing whether an individual is in the LGBT community during the time of termination — falls on the employer when a lawsuit is filed, he said.
Which is…I mean, where do you begin pointing out the flaws in that argument?
The idea that someone would pretend to be LGBT solely to seek legal protection is far-fetched and offensive. It sounds like the plot of a sequel to the low-camp flop The Gay Deceivers, or of an especially unfunny reboot of Three’s Company.
McCarty’s rhetoric assumes that LGBT identity is all smoke-and-mirrors, that there’s no substance to it, which all of us know is ridiculous. It also assumes that such a deceit — if someone were foolish enough to attempt it — wouldn’t be easily discovered by a judge and/or jury. (Unless the judge were Don Knotts, I guess.)
Equally bad is the tone of McCarty’s fear-mongering, which echoes the appalling “bathroom” arguments that bigots have used to fight trans-inclusive legislation in states and municipalities across the country. The only difference is, in this case, he’s trying to drum up fear in the business community about the burden of granting LGBT persons legal rights.
The bottom line here is that AIM — and by extension, Ford — believes that discrimination against LGBT persons isn’t important enough to enshrine in law. And that, friends, is worth complaining about.
[via Towleroad]