ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Best Answer Is Legislation

All’s well that ends well. Thankfully, officials at C.J. Segerstrom & Sons did the right thing in announcing that their written employee policies have been changed to specifically ban workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians at South Coast Plaza and other Segerstrom properties. But the flap over the internal Segerstrom memo that precipitated the change illustrated a larger problem.

For his recent veto of gay rights legislation, Gov. Pete Wilson was burned in effigy and received less-than-positive feedback from the court of public opinion. A Times poll found Californians disapproving of the veto by a narrow margin and that the vast majority saw politics in the decision.

The ink on the governor’s sop to his Republican Party’s right wing was barely dry when the remarkable 2-year-old internal memo surfaced from the Segerstrom company, owner of South Coast Plaza. It provided an unusual window on the dubious kind of logic behind Wilson’s veto. It challenged the governor’s assertion that adequate protections exist in the workplace. It suggested instead that many California businesses are operating without guidance on the hiring and promotions of homosexuals.

Managing partner Henry T. Segerstrom actually had sought the memo in anticipation of fulfilling his firm’s obligations. That seems a responsible enough gesture, prompted by the repeal of a portion of a local civil rights measure banning discrimination against gays in nearby Irvine. But the memo he received from his operations director was a clumsy statement that outlined how the firm could legally continue to refuse to hire or promote because of sexual preference. The memo was obtained by gay activists, who threatened to boycott South Coast Plaza.

In the face of this kind of smoking gun, the argument that adequate protections of gay rights exist in the workplace quickly collapses. Surely many California businesses have wrestled similarly with whether to have specific language in their manuals on the hiring and promotion of gays. And if the threat of lawsuits is a nuisance, how about the awkward position of South Coast Plaza’s 200 shops? They heard rumblings of a boycott even though they do their own hiring and some are hailed as supportive by gay activists.

Segerstrom was right to clarify its position. And businesses like it need better state guidance in the area of employment discrimination against homosexuals.