Missouri State Law

Dutch2 · December 2003

Does anyone know if there is a law in the State of Missouri that states gays/homosexuals are a protected group? We have a young (upper 20's to mid 30's)gay man working for us that has done an outstanding job in every position that he has had while working here. However, he has recently applied for a promotion that would place him very much in the public spot light especially in the rural agricluture community. Three of our Board Members have stated they are opposed to this promotion based only on his sexual preference. I had a talk with our President this afternoon and strongly recommended that we should have a business reason not to give him this promotion and not based only on his life style. In this small rural community I can understand their concerns about how this "could" take business away from us once word hits the community about this man. It used to be easy, didn't it?
Thank you,
Dutch2

John Vering MO · December 2003

There is no Missouri state law protecting gays/homosexuals and, as a general rule, if you are a private employer and the employee works in a city that does not have an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, you could probably deny the promotion of that basis. However, I think many judges and more jurors than you might think would find such a decision inappropriate and unfair and if the person is also in some other protected category might find discrimination against your company on another basis because they think the person was unfairly treated. In my experience dealing with employers, the fear that customers will be offended in generally overstated.
John Vering
Mo. co-editor

Don D · December 2003

Notwithstanding Mr. Vering's 'feelings' or 'assumptions' about the overstating of fears, the employer in your state is not legally prohibited from making an employment decision based on his conclusions about sexual preference. But since he stated his 'feelings' I will give you mine; and that is that "rural agricultural employers" are notoriously unforgiving in general, and less accepting in particular, of what they might consider deviant behaviors. I am simply the messenger; but, you already knew the message since you are in the middle of that community.

marc · December 2003

The two posts above represent the bookends of the opinion spectrum on this one. You are kind of ##### if you do and ##### if you don't.

If you do not promote you risk the fury of judges and juries and who knows the dollar amounts of that exposure.

If you do promote, you risk offending your provincial customer base, and right or wrong, they spend their dollars or not based on what they think, not what some court in St. Louis or Kansas City thinks.

Your post leads me to believe you understand this quandry very well. You have a good EE who probably deserves the promotion and you might personally support it, but your Board has said no, and you ultimately work for them.

I would say, warn them of the dangers as suggested by John Vering and then do what they tell you to do, making sure you cover your posterior.

Dutch2 · December 2003

Thank you all for your counsel. I was unable to find any materials that indicated Missouri had any laws protecting gays/homosexuals and I had to make sure. As always and once again, the Employer's Forum comes to the rescue.
Thank you,
Dutch2

SMace · December 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 12-10-03 AT 10:50AM (CST)[/font][br][br]How will they know that he is gay? I think sometimes you can assume people are gay based on sterotypical behavior (speech, etc.) but unless he broadcasts it they shouldn't know. Right? If he does such a good job, should he not know to shelve his non-work related behaviors (just as heterosexuals do) and continue to perform well.

Missouri State Law

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