There was a recent letter from a small business owner claiming that there would be a cost to Question 1 because you could easily get sued unless you laid off only the heterosexual workers you had. As an attorney who represents both defendants and plaintiffs, I can say that this business owner clearly needs better legal counsel.

I can understand his fear if his reading of the law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was correct; the problem is, he is quite wrong. In the same way that a business owner can lay off someone as long as the particular layoff is not motivated by age or gender, business owners can lay off whom they need to regardless of sexual orientation.

Business costs did not rise because elderly persons went wild filing lawsuits when the Maine Human Rights Act was passed prohibiting discrimination on the basis of age. The same is true of the referendum on Question 1; not only does a case have to first be screened by the Maine Human Rights Commission, but a plaintiff employee has to prove that the layoff was motivated by a bias against age (or sexual orientation).

There are no “special rights” being given. All the law requires is that everyone be treated by the same standard.

Treat folks fairly as a business owner – apply the golden rule – and you need not live in the fear that this writer predicted.

Rebecca Webber, Turner