Ensuring Rights for Gays at Work

* Regarding your editorial “The Right to Have a Job” (July 7): Thank you for taking a stand on this very basic but important issue.

As an openly gay person, I have known discrimination. I am proud to live in a city where there is a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I am also fortunate to work for an employer, the University of California, who prohibits such job discrimination.

I know many gay and lesbian people whose job performance and morale are higher because they are protected from arbitrary job discrimination. I can only imagine the increase in the productivity level of hundreds of thousands of American workers if the Employment Nondiscrimination Act is passed this summer.

ROBERT GENTRY

Laguna Beach

Robert Gentry is a Laguna Beach councilman.