Gay-Rights Opponents Seek, and in Some Cases Find, Their Way into Proxies
Wall Street Journal,
May 15, 2001
200 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10281
Fax: 212-416-2658
Email: letter.editor@edit.wsj.com
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB989879072513863677.htm
Work Week
When AT&T Corp. shareholders meet May 23, they will consider a proposal
to remove the words "sexual preference or orientation" from its
equal-opportunity policy. The proposal’s proponents argue that because
sodomy is still illegal in many states, the New York company’s policy
condones lawbreaking. "The company shouldn’t be promoting it, and that’s
what it seems like they do," says Steve Stefan, a Dayton, Ohio, retiree
whose son wrote the proposal.
Gay-rights opponents are using a tactic once used by gay-rights groups to
draw attention. Last year, Computer Associates International Inc. shareholders
defeated a proposal by gay-rights opponents to do away with the company’s
same-sex domestic-partner benefits. AT&T’s case is different because the
company sought a so-called no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange
Commission for the legal cover to exclude the proposal. But while
benefits-related proposals can be excluded because they relate to ordinary
business issues, discrimination policies aren’t usually seen as ordinary
business, says Brian Lane, a former SEC official.
Gay advocacy groups believe the resolution is the first such challenge to
sexual-orientation protections.
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