A federal appeals court has ruled that corporate giant Wal-Mart was justified for firing a store employee who told a lesbian co-worker she would go to hell because God does not accept gay people, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Tanisha Matthews made comments in September 2005 about God and homosexuality. The next day, an employee informed a manager that Matthews had made anti-gay comments about gays to a lesbian employee named Amy. Matthews said that God does not accept gays; gays should not “be on earth”; and they will “go to hell” because they are not “right in the head,” according to the court ruling.
Wal-Mart fired Matthews after concluding Matthews had violated the company’s anti-discrimination policy. She sued the company for race and religious discrimination, claiming she was fired because of her religious beliefs and not because she violated company policy. (She later dropped the race claim.) The appeals court ruled, ” [I] f Matthews is arguing that Wal-Mart must permit her to admonish gays at work to accommodate her religion, the claim fails.”