Xerox Showing Its True Colours

Employees of the Xerox Corporation of America, which has 38 branches and 10,000 employees in the US, has launched its "Project Safe Place". This project includes providing its employees with coloured magnets for their office doors and desks to denote their sexual orientation -- pink for homosexuals and white for heterosexuals. "The program has been a tremendous success and there have been no complaints,"said Dan Phelan, a sales manager at the Century City, California office, who has a photograph of his lover, Jim, by his desk. "It is designed to communicate to gay and lesbian workers that, 'In my office, you are safe; you don't have to hide your sexuality.'"

It does raise some questions, though. Where will it all end? Will workers soon be encouraged to identify not only their sexual orientation, but also their sexual preferences? Will so-called "leg-men" be asked to prominently display silk stockings for all to see? Or those with foot-fetishes display their favorite picture of a foot? Will "bust-men" (or women -- it's really too confusing!!!) be able to get things "off their chest" and declare their personal pleasures as well? Alas, where does the dignified celibate fit in with all this nonsense? And just how voluntary is the program, anyway?

Why do homosexuals argue, on the one hand, acceptance in the workplace -- to simply be able to do their work like everyone else -- while on the other hand, they demand that their orientation be a matter of public interest and concern?

The fact is, the workplace is the workplace, and one's sexual preferences (whether homosexual or heterosexual) are a private matter which should not be an issue in the workplace under any circumstances.

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