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 Shareholders Reject Bid To Strip Gay
Protections At Wells Fargo
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: April 30, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(San Francisco, California) A motion by a Wells
Fargo shareholder to remove protections for LGBT workers from the company's
non-discrimination policy was defeated this week at its annual meeting.
Wells Fargo & Co. is the fifth largest U.S.
bank by assets.
The motion called for the company to "to formulate an equal
employment policy ...that does not make reference to any matters related to
sexual interests, activities or orientation."
It said that homosexuality has been "condemned by the major traditions of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more".
The motion was crafted by Pro Vita Advisors, a
group that helps promote conservative values.
The motion said that "While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a
woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and
activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate
concern."
The proposal was easily defeated.
Nearly 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies
have non-discrimination policies.
Conservative groups have attacked Wells Fargo for
the past three years over its "pro-gay policies".
In 2005 Focus on the Family withdrew its funds
from Wells Fargo.
"Focus on the Family has elected to end its
banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank's ongoing
efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda. These efforts are in direct
opposition to the underlying principles and purpose of Focus, and thus a
decision of conscience had to be made, and a stand taken," said a statement
from FOF at the time.
Focus said Wells Fargo had donated more than $14
million to pro-gay organizations in the last two decades.
Similar shareholder challenges to
non-discrimination policies that include gays have been fought and lost at Ford
Motor Company.
©365Gay.com 2008
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