Washington State Says Religious Group Can Refuse Gay Volunteers

Page One Q reported yesterday on a decision handed down by the Washington State Human Rights Commission apparently allowing religious organizations to exclude gays and lesbians as volunteers. In March 2008, Tad Erichsen and John Footh were turned away as volunteers by His Supper Table, a meal program operating in Long Beach, Washington. They say the program director, Mike Renfro, told them that their presence would create a hostile work environment. The two men filed a complaint under the state's anti-discrimination law that, among other things, bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. (RCW Chap. 49.60). The Commission issued a decision last month that was communicated to Erichsen and Footh via a phone exit interview. Apparently the decision concluded that the 1st Amendment protects religious organizations in their decisions to exclude volunteers on religious, sexual orientation or other grounds.