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SUMMARY: A Hewlett-Packard employee fired for refusing to remove anti-gay biblical passages from his cubical cannot claim discrimination, a federal court ruled.
A Hewlett-Packard employee fired for refusing to remove anti-gay biblical passages from his cubical cannot claim discrimination, according to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) ruling in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The three-judge panel ruled that Hewlett-Packard acted within its legal bounds when it fired Richard D. Peterson in 2001 after Peterson refused to take down the passages, which the court said were intended to "demean" or "degrade" fellow employees.
Peterson, 55, had worked at a Hewlett-Packard office in Boise, Idaho, for 21 years when the company instituted a diversity campaign that included a poster calling for tolerance of gay employees. Peterson objected to the poster on religious grounds and, in response, hung biblical passages condemning homosexuality on the overhead bin above his cubicle.
A self-described devout Christian who said it was his duty "to expose evil when confronted with it," Peterson deliberately hung the verses where employees and customers would see them, the Associated Press reported.
Among the passages he posted was one from Leviticus, stating, "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
When supervisors asked Peterson to remove the passages on the grounds they could offend other employees, he refused, saying he would remove them only if the gay-tolerance posters were taken down. Company officials refused.
Peterson told his supervisors as long as Hewlett-Packard included homosexuality in its campaign for diversity, he would challenge it. He was then given time off with pay to reconsider his stance. Upon returning to work, he reposted the verses, and was fired for insubordination. Peterson subsequently filed a $1 million suit against the company.
"It is evident that he was discharged, not because of his religious beliefs, but because he violated the company's harassment policy by attempting to generate a hostile and intolerant work environment and that he was insubordinate" for not complying with supervisors' requests, wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
"Hewlett-Packard's efforts to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals in its workplace were entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of our civil rights statutes generally," Reinhardt wrote.
The court emphasized that although Hewlett-Packard objected to the posting of the biblical verses, it did not challenge Peterson's religious beliefs, and did not object to a homophobic letter Peterson published in the local paper about the company's diversity campaign or to the "Sodomy Is Not a Family Value" bumper sticker on his car.
Peterson's lawyer, Christ Troupis, plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites).
A Hewlett-Packard employee fired for refusing to remove anti-gay biblical passages from his cubical cannot claim discrimination, according to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) ruling in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The three-judge panel ruled that Hewlett-Packard acted within its legal bounds when it fired Richard D. Peterson in 2001 after Peterson refused to take down the passages, which the court said were intended to "demean" or "degrade" fellow employees.
Peterson, 55, had worked at a Hewlett-Packard office in Boise, Idaho, for 21 years when the company instituted a diversity campaign that included a poster calling for tolerance of gay employees. Peterson objected to the poster on religious grounds and, in response, hung biblical passages condemning homosexuality on the overhead bin above his cubicle.
A self-described devout Christian who said it was his duty "to expose evil when confronted with it," Peterson deliberately hung the verses where employees and customers would see them, the Associated Press reported.
Among the passages he posted was one from Leviticus, stating, "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
When supervisors asked Peterson to remove the passages on the grounds they could offend other employees, he refused, saying he would remove them only if the gay-tolerance posters were taken down. Company officials refused.
Peterson told his supervisors as long as Hewlett-Packard included homosexuality in its campaign for diversity, he would challenge it. He was then given time off with pay to reconsider his stance. Upon returning to work, he reposted the verses, and was fired for insubordination. Peterson subsequently filed a $1 million suit against the company.
"It is evident that he was discharged, not because of his religious beliefs, but because he violated the company's harassment policy by attempting to generate a hostile and intolerant work environment and that he was insubordinate" for not complying with supervisors' requests, wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
"Hewlett-Packard's efforts to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals in its workplace were entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of our civil rights statutes generally," Reinhardt wrote.
The court emphasized that although Hewlett-Packard objected to the posting of the biblical verses, it did not challenge Peterson's religious beliefs, and did not object to a homophobic letter Peterson published in the local paper about the company's diversity campaign or to the "Sodomy Is Not a Family Value" bumper sticker on his car.
Peterson's lawyer, Christ Troupis, plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites).
to HP. Guess this guy should be more careful when he works in an at-will state, eh? 
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