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Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191
NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2010 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the advice [click here] given by the British law firm, BPE Solicitors, on how to handle Christmas parties:
This British law firm offers indispensable advice. "Christmas parties, with their mix of drink, high spirits and merriment, are one of the main potential sources of problems." Exactly right -- this mix is combustible. But what problems are they talking about? "The claims which are most likely to arise are those around sexual harassment, bullying, assault and discrimination." Prudence dictates that the party be cancelled, but we at the Catholic League are going to risk it and see what happens.
The law firm does not lack for specifics. "Protection from harassment and discrimination relate to unwanted conduct on the grounds of sex, age, disability, gender reassignment, religion or belief, race, marital status and sexual orientation." Wow. The good news is that the Brits opt for the correct term -- sex -- which conveys a nature-based reason for sexual differences. The bad news is that they use the term "gender reassignment" when, in fact, it is not gender that is being "reassigned": the surgery alters one's anatomy. In any event, we are fortunate not to have any gender reassigned people working at the Catholic League (as far as I can tell, anyway), though I've had my doubts about a few recent applicants. Nice to know, too, that "belief" merits the same status as religion. If you can believe it.
The Brits also warn that at the Christmas party, "Muslim employees may feel excluded if the only religion option is an alcohol fueled trip to the pub." Good thing we don't hire any -- all we do is go to pubs.
Finally, they suggest that employers should "identify areas where staff from other religions might be disadvantaged and then consider how those arrangements could be changed to overcome those disadvantaged." We don't have this problem either -- we simply order them to convert and be done with it.
