🚀 go-pugleaf

On 3 Apr 1996 23:13:59 -0700 Paul Ciszek (pciszek@nyx10.cs.du.edu) wrote:

> Equality has nothing to do with it.  Certain groups are designated
> "minorities" (I put it in quotes because women are anything but a
> minority) and given certain protections, quotas, etc.  By definition,
> each of these "minorities" must exist in contrast to some other group
> NOT considered a "minority".

The term you are searching for is "suspect class".  Every sexual 
orientation non-discrimination law I have seen clearly states that it 
prohibts discrimination based on orientation without setting any 
particular orientation as a suspect class.  They also specifically 
prohibit quotas.

> For example, a military school can be forced to relax its physical fitness
> standards in order to admit a woman because she is a woman, but a man cannot
> demand similar special treatment by virtue of HIS gender.

Sure he can.  There is currently a court case where some guy is suing the 
Hooters restaurant chain about not hiring him as a waiter because he 
doesn't have big breasts.  It's a really straight-forward use of the 
gender non-discrimination laws.

>                                            A racial or sexual "minority"
> who is laid off or fired can use race or sexual orientation as a legal issue
> and sue to get their job back.  Note that it is not a requirement that they
> be fired BECAUSE of race or sexual orientation; their membership in a
> protected group allows them to use this legal tactic,

A straight white male could use *exactly* the same legal tactic.  
However, it seems that the people doing the firing are most often 
straight white males so it is admittedly much more unlikely to prove 
that they have some sort of bias against straight white males.

>                                             Anyone who has worked for
> a government contractor can tell you plenty of horror stories about the
> people who cannot be fired.

It was my understanding that any where employee organizations or unions 
are really strong, it's really hard to fire *anyone* regardless of race.  
You have to fill out tons and tons of paperwork to prove that such a 
person was completely unsatisfactory and the union usually automatically 
challenges every firing.  Granted, suspect classes usually have one more 
viable line of defense, but it's one that straight white males could use 
and definitely should use if it is justified.

Alex.

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Alex Elliott
Yale University Physics Department
New Haven, CT, USA

email:  elliott@minerva.cis.yale.edu
  WWW:  http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~elliott
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