If your company supports legislation that is in direct conflict with your religious faith and your comments to a company internal online survey are contrary to your company’s position - should you be fired?
Lacey Smith and Marli Brown - flight attendants for Alaska Airlines - have had their lawsuit against the airline revived by an appeals court.
Pride Month ended last month and discrimination against homosexuals in America is very real. In 2021, Alaska Airlines announced the company was supporting the proposed Equality Act - which is a federal bill that would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The bill passed the House - but has yet to pass the Senate.
After announcing support for the Equality Act - Alaska Airlines asked employees to comment in an online forum for employees about its support of the legislation. Lacey Smith commented, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” Marli Brown expressed opposition to the support for the Equality Act and commented that it would have an adverse effect on women, girls, and people of faith. The airline described the comments from the two flight attendants as “hateful” and “offensive.”
From what I have read about the comments from the two flight attendants - there must be more to their comments because even though their comments defy the company’s support of the Equality Act - the comments don’t appear to be very offensive. As much as I tried - I was unable to find out more about exactly what the flight attendants said if it was more than was mentioned in several news stories.
In a statement to Fox News Digital - Lacey Smith said that this case is really about “a nation of people who have also been facing religious discrimination in the workplace.”
Companies should have the right to curtail the expression of religious beliefs while in the workplace - but if any employees - including the two flight attendants - keep their religious beliefs private and do not allow their beliefs to interfere with the performance of their jobs or negatively impact a company’s image - then they should not be fired. Again - I wanted to learn more about what Smith and Brown said but was unable to find anything other than what was mentioned in several articles on the topic.
It seems that the flight attendants might have said more in their comments and/or presented a threat to be open about their faith while on the job and that’s why they were fired.
What’s interesting about Alaska Airlines is that when I was on the air and living in Denver - while my girlfriend remained in Portland - I often flew Alaska Airlines and I was surprised to see prayer cards with Bible passages on meal trays. From the early 70s until 2012 - Alaska Airlines placed prayer cards on First Class meal trays.
As people became more sensitive to religion being pushed in certain areas - Alaska Airlines watched and complaints about the prayer cards increased and finally in 2021 the airline stopped putting the prayer cards on meal trays. Because of witnessing the prayer cards on meal trays when I flew Alaska - I always thought of Alaska Airlines as a Christian airline. The company’s support for the Equality Act is refreshing because it reminds us that a Christian company can be open to supporting something like the Equality Act. I believe support of the Equality Act and support of homosexuals in America can be Christian-based.
Interestingly - the original reason Alaska Airlines put the prayer cards on the meal trays was to make nervous passengers feel more comfortable about flying. I think we would all like those prayer cards today to just pray that our flights are on time and that our airline is still flying!
