Excerpted from Cargill Firing Energizes Lawmakers, by Jeff Mellott, published Oct 5, 2006, in Daily News Record:

…The company fired Padilla earlier this month after it had received complaints about a sign on his personal pickup truck. The sign asked voters to support a constitutional amendment on marriage that defines the institution as a union between one man and one woman. Voters will take up the amendment on Nov. 7.

Cargill representatives said this week that Padilla, who was a human resources clerk, lost his job because of insubordination.But Padilla believes he was fired because of the sign on his pickup truck.

The company ordered Padilla to remove the sign after receiving complaints about it.

…Padilla’s actions violated company policies on intolerance, the company attorney said in a response dated Oct. 17 to Rita Dunaway of the Valley Family Forum. The attorney added that Padilla had been insubordinate.

The sign Cargill ordered Padilla to remove, the attorney said in the letter, contained a message that other employees could have “reasonably construed as a show of hostility and intolerance toward homosexuals.”

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell] said, “When people start to see the overreach of the homosexual supporters, they are going to start thinking, ‘There’s an agenda out there.’”

…The amendment, [Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg] said, reflects a constitutional codification of state law.

The Padilla case demonstrates that somebody is suggesting that current state law is offensive and discriminatory, he said.

And, Obenshain continued, somebody also is suggesting that someone who expresses support for current state law ought to be fired.

“To me,” he said, “that’s absurd.”

Continue reading in Daily News Record…

Also read Pro-Marriage Message at Root of Employee’s Dismissal, by Jim Brown and Jody Brown, published Oct 20, 2006, by Agape Press.

Excerpted from Christian BA Employee to Take Legal Action Over Suspension for Wearing Cross, by Jane Merrick, published Oct 14, 2006, by Daily Mail:

…Heathrow check-in worker Nadia Eweida was sent home after refusing to remove the crucifix which breached BA’s dress code.

Miss Eweida, who has an unblemished record during seven years at BA, is suing her employer for religious discrimination after being suspended from work without pay for two weeks.

She said her treatment was all the more extraordinary as she and fellow employees had just undergone “diversity training” – including receiving advice from pressure group Stonewall on how to treat gays and lesbians in the workplace.

…Miss Eweida said last night: “I will not hide my belief in the Lord Jesus. British Airways permits Muslims to wear a headscarf, Sikhs to wear a turban and other faiths religious apparel.”Only Christians are forbidden to express their faith. I am a loyal and conscientious employee of British Airways, but I stand up for the rights of all citizens.”

Continue reading at Daily Mail…

The Chicago media treated the recent “Gay Games” as if it were a serious sporting and cultural event, but few spectators showed up to watch. Writing for Illinois Family Institute, I called the “Games” a flop. Now we learn that despite all the hype and corporate subsidies (and free publicity), the “Gay Games” was a financial flop, too. Click on the links in the story below for photos and local coverage of the event from June.–Peter LaBarbera

Excerpted from Gay Games Plans Final Event, by Joel Nosh, published Oct 12, 2006, in Chicago Tribune:

Paraphernalia sale intended to help eliminate shortfall

… With a $200,000 budget shortfall on an event organizers predicted would at least break even, everything must go.

By shedding these assets and soliciting donations, organizers who ran the Games on a $10 million cash budget say they will get back to zero or maybe even generate a slight surplus by the spring.

…[Kevin] Boyer said letters were sent to potential donors two weeks ago in an effort to raise $100,000. Another $100,000 has already been pledged in matching funds, he said. More money will come in from the sale of thousands of items large and small later this month.

For the last 12 years, the Gay Games, an international event staged every four years, has been financially troubled.

The 2002 Games in Sydney and 1998 Games in Amsterdam both finished more than $1 million in the red. The 1994 New York Games declared bankruptcy with a $350,000 shortfall, and the 1990 Vancouver Games ended $100,000 in the hole.

In each case, local governments, businesses or both absorbed the ultimate financial blow.

…Gay Games organizers have been chipping away at their debts, Boyer said, and getting creative when able. Equipment has been accepted in place of cash, and in some cases they have asked for bills to be lowered or forgiven.

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said the Gay Games has given $17,000 of equipment, including softball equipment and fencing, to chip away at its balance. Gay Games, which still owes nearly $30,000, also has been sending in money on a payment plan, she said.

Continue reading in Chicago Tribune…

From our friends at American Family Association:

Wal-Mart has given its full endorsement to the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage. Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, will observe LGBT Diversity Week October 9–13. One of the sponsors for the Diversity Week is Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is joining the Pleasure Boutique (an adult bookstore which bills itself as “Idaho’s largest selection of adult movies and DVDs and largest adult toy selection in Idaho”) and other groups in sponsoring the week. Diversity Week is a week of celebrating homosexuality and promoting the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage.

Among the events being sponsored by Wal-Mart is Idaho Votes No Campaign Update and Information Workshop. Voters in Idaho will be voting on a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in November. This Wal-Mart sponsored event will inform voters how to oppose the amendment and how to get others to do so. Wal-Mart is putting their money behind the effort to legalize homosexual marriage.

Other events being sponsored by Wal-Mart: Gay History of Idaho, Diversity in the Workplace, Women’s/Lesbian Issues, Hate Based Crimes, Heterosexism, Homosexuality and Disabilities, LGBT Youth in Trouble, MCC-Faith and LGBT, and a youth dance for those age 24 and under.

TAKE ACTION

1. E-mail Wal-Mart or call 1-800-WAL-MART.
2. Call or e-mail your local Wal-Mart manager with your concerns.
   
3. Print out and distribute AFA’s Pass Along Sheet.

It used to be American leftists and peaceniks who crusaded against Big Business. Now it’s moral-minded and largely Christian conservatives–who have watched one Fortune 500 company after another embrace pro-homosexual advocacy, dressed up as “diversity.”

While the pro-family movement focused on doing battle against the homosexual lobby in Washington, D.C., and state capitals, “gay” activists won over corporations, largely through internal activism within each company. Kodak, a leading national sponsor of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) went heavily into homosexual advocacy after a top female executive declared her lesbianism to fellow execs. Kodak is among the 138 companies that received a 100% score on the “Corporate Equality Index” (read: Pro-Homosexuality Index) of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s leading “gay” lobby group.

The battle to restore corporate neutrality on the homosexual issue will be a long and tough one, but it must be fought. People of faith inside companies can refuse to participate in pro-homosexual, one-sided “tolerance” sessions that undercut their moral beliefs. Or at least, they can request that the pro-family perspective on the issue be represented in the name of diversity. And they must work closely with outside family advocates to fight against corporate grants to homosexual groups like HRC that have a well-earned reputation for radicalism and bigotry–e.g., supporting taxpayer-funded transsexual “sex-change” operations and demonizing religious people and groups opposed to homosexuality.

You may get hassled or even punished along the way for standing for truth, but Christ said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).  If you need some help sharing the Gospel with a homosexual co-worker, try reading this short, helpful paper by former lesbian Yvette Schneider, “How Christians Can Talk to Homosexuals.”

The pendulum is swinging toward a politically correct corporate embrace of immoral and unhealthy sexual behavior, dressed up as an “orientation.” It will swing back toward normalcy in the years ahead. –– Peter LaBarbera

The following is excerpted from New Report Shows Corporate America Competing to Be the Most GLBT-Friendly, published Sept 19, 2006, by the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign:

The Human Rights Campaign today released a report showing that a record number of the largest U.S. companies are increasingly competing to expand benefits and protections for their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees and consumers. This year’s report, the Human Rights Campaign’s fifth annual Corporate Equality Index, showed an unprecedented 138 major U.S. companies earned the top rating of 100 percent.

Continue reading the HRC report…

From America’s pro-homosexual giants: 2006, published Sept 20, 2006, by WorldNet Daily:
Below is the list of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2006 Corporate Equality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals:

Excerpted from List of GayFriendly Companies Continues to Grow, published Sept 21, 2006, by Agape Press:

The 2006 Corporate Equality Index’s 138-member list includes perennial representatives like IBM, Levi-Strauss, Nike, and even Ford Motor Company. It measures benefits and protections to “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender” employees and customers, including promises against discrimination. The jump from a list of 101 last year to 138 this year is being called a reflection of several culture trends. (See related article on WorldNetDaily)

Peter LaBarbera is president of Americans for Truth, a group that monitors the homosexual agenda throughout American culture. He contends that the campaigns to portray homosexuals and transgenders as a minority — and to represent them as large contributors to corporate America’s bottom line — has been successful…

Continue reading at Agape Press…

Excerpted from Why is the Conservative Government Wasting Taxpayer Dollars on “Queer” Film Festival? by John-Henry Westen and Gudrun Schultz, published Aug 31, 2006, by LifeSite News:

…[T]he Conservative Government [of Canada]…funded the 2006 Vancouver Queer Film Festival, which ran from August 17-27.

The festival’s sponsorship page lists the Department of Canadian Heritage as the offending federal government branch. (See the sponsorship page here.)

Dominique Collin, spokesperson for Canadian Heritage Minister Beverley Oda, told LifeSiteNews.com the Vancouver regional branch of the Heritage department conducted the funding allocation which consisted of $23,000 (Canadian).

Ginette Montreuil, regional manager with the Vancouver office, confirmed that the Conservative Government approved the Arts Presentation Canada funding for the 2006 Festival on March 27, 2006.

The festival line-up included films with titles such as Deconstructing Crack Ho, Dyke After Dyke, I cum I, Lesbians On Ecstasy, Post-Porn & New Technologies Of Pleasure, and Toilet Sex In Canadian Cinema.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Notes from AFT:

Actually, SIX Canadian government offices are listed on the sponsor page linked above.

Corporate sponsors include: Vancity, Showcase, Ramada Hotels, Quality Hotels, Opus Hotels, Visa, and many others.

Of particular note: the “youth-rated” queer films, about which the website suggests: “School is out, but you can queerify your summer.” Three companies are listed as sponsors specifically for this “Out in Schools” portion of the festival: Vancity, BC Hydro, and Vancouver Foundation.