NEWSLINK: Governor Gives “Gay” Ohio Employees Special Rights

Excerpts from “Strickland bans bias against gay workers”
An article in the 5/17/07 Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer, by Mark Naymik

State employees who are gay or consider themselves the opposite gender are about to have the same legal workplace protections as their co-workers.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland plans to sign an executive order this morning prohibiting state government from discriminating against its employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The order goes beyond state and federal law, which protect against discrimination on the basis of race or religion but not on sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Strickland promised to sign such a order during his 2006 gubernatorial campaign, when he won the support of gay and lesbian groups.

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Phil Burress, head of the conservative Citizens for Community Values, which led the successful campaign to pass Ohio’s gay-marriage ban, said Strickland’s order is bad public policy. He sees little evidence that gays are discriminated against in the public sector.

“To give someone these types of privileges based on whom they choose to have sex with is an insult,” he said.

< end of excerpts from article >

Read the entire news article here:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/117939129445900.xml&coll=2