Firing For Telling Ford Bosses Being Gay ‘Leads To Death’ To Bring Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

A man who says he was fired for his anti-gay remarks has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), claiming religious discrimination. He also plans to sue.

Thomas Banks of Ypsilanti, Michigan, is claiming religious discrimination in an EEOC complaint filed Wednesday against Ford Motor Company and Rapid Global Business Solutions (RGBSI), for whom he was a contractor. Banks says he was fired for comments he made in response to a Ford company memo feedback form.

“I got a news item in my inbox,” Banks says. “They were celebrating 20 years of supporing this one employee organization called Globe, which I found offensive. I disagreed with the whole premise.”

Banks says he filled out a feedback form, stating, “Ford Motor should be thoroughly ashamed. Endorsing and promoting sodomy is of benefit to no one. This topic is disruptive to the workplace and is an assault on Christians and morality, as well as antithetical to our design and our survival. Immoral sexual conduct should not be a topic for an automotive manufacturer to endorse or promote. And yes-this is historic-but not in a good way. Never in the history of mankind has a culture survived that promotes sodomy. Heterosexual behavior creates life- homosexual behavior leads to death.”

Banks reportedly was fired last year on August 4. He is now represented by a right-wing religious legal firm, Liberty Institute, which issued a strong statement, including labeling Ford’s policy of inclusion as “pro-homosexual.”

“We are shocked that Ford Motor Company would terminate one of their employees simply because he expressed his faith,” said Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute Director of Litigation in the statement. “If Ford is allowed to get away with firing Mr. Banks over this comment, we fear that every person of faith will be punished for talking about his or her faith in the workplace. At Ford, if you speak about your faith as it relates to the company, even to the company, you may be terminated.”

A Facebook page that strongly appears to be Banks’ – although this has not been confirmed – includes many anti-gay comments.

“Why do I oppose Same-Sex marriage?,” one post, dated October 14, 2014, asks. “Because real marriage produces life and same-sex marriage only death.”

Another says that homosexual “behavior leads to more sexually transmitted diseases, shortened life expectancy and fewer families and hence less children. Without children, we have no future. Supporting sodomy is suicidal. This is not what we hope for for our children.” 

And yet another Facebook comment, seemingly by Banks, says that “what gay people do is vile.”

On March 13, 2013, a Facebook post, again that appears to be Banks’, reads, “Today arguments will be made before the Supreme Court weather sodomy will be enshrined into our laws. Today many will raise their fists against God and say- ‘We know better then this lunatic creator’.”

Yet another anti-gay post, dated just days after he started his new job, asks, “Why does 2 guys sodomizing each other need to be exposed to legal recognition?”

 

Image via Wikimedia