In NYC Gay Group Fights Against Wal-Mart
As Wal-Mart strives to open its first store in New York City, it has attracted a long list of opponents, from elected officials to labor leaders to small business people.
On Wednesday, another group took up the cause: a prominent gay rights group.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a gay advocacy group based in Washington, said Wal-Mart had a poor record when it came to gay employees.
“With the expansion of Wal-Mart stores comes the expansion of antiquated employment policies,” the task force said in a statement, “that provide little to no protections for, and at times even hostility toward, their L.G.B.T. employees.”
The task force criticized Wal-Mart for denying employee benefits to same-sex partners and for failing to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. By comparison, the group said two other chain stores with a strong presence in New York, Costco and Walgreens, did much better.
“It may be a local debate for New York City, but Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the country,” said Rea Carey, the executive director of the task force. “To have Wal-Mart as a substantial employer there, and an employer that lacks these basic protections, then a lot of people who need work, who seek work, simply won’t feel comfortable.”
Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the organization that recruited the task force to join the fight against Wal-Mart’s setting up shop in New York, said other gay advocacy groups had also criticized the giant retailer’s record on gay rights. One of those is the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City.
Wal-Mart, however, rejects the argument that it is not welcoming to gay employees, citing its Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Associate Resource Group (pdf) as a place where employees can build a sense of community.
“Diversity and inclusion are enduring values that are fundamental to our culture,” said Steven Restivo, a Wal-Mart spokesman, “which includes a focus on having respect for our colleagues and customers.”
The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, also criticized Wal-Mart for its record on this gay issues.
“This lack of inclusion in its diversity policies is the antithesis of what we in N.Y.C. want and expect from our corporate partners,” she said in a statement. “These are yet two more reasons why Wal-Mart is a poor fit to do business in N.Y.C.”
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