Cracker Barrel founder Danny Evins is dead, and the NYT wastes no time reminding the world of his legacy, a "losing battle to discriminate against gay employees."
At a time when discrimination against gay people was not prohibited under the laws of most states or the federal government, and many companies practiced it, Cracker Barrel's action stood out for its sheer blatancy.
“They actually put a policy like this in writing, which was, and still is, shocking,” David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization based in Washington, told The Herald-Tribune.
The New York City Employees Retirement System, which owned more than $6 million of Cracker Barrel shares, led other stock owners in using their votes and other legal means to organize resistance.
In March 1991, Mr. Evins apologized and said the policy had been rescinded. But New York and its allies fought until 58 percent of the shareholders in 2002 persuaded Cracker Barrel's board to vote unanimously to explicitly forbid antigay discrimination in its equal employment policy.
Anti-gay activists should take heed. Is this how you want to be remembered?
