Subject: KFC Discrimination Protests
From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 12:02:12 -0500

NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE
NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Robert Bray, 415-552-6448; [email-masked]
      Robin Kane, 202-332-6483, ext. 3311; [email-masked]

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN: WHERE BIGOTRY IS
 FINGER LICKIN' GOOD

ANTI-RACISM PROTESTERS JOINED BY GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TO PICKET KFC

Louisville, KY -- March 21, 1995...Colonel Sanders, scion of the popular
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, has found himself deep in a public
relations hot fryer here at the corporate headquarters of the international
fast food company. 

 Local African-American civil rights leaders have been joined by gay, lesbian
and bisexual activists to challenge alleged racial and homophobic
discriminatory practices at KFC.  African-American leaders have taken the
lead in organizing protests in Louisville, including a massive city-wide
picket and boycott of KFC stores slated for April 1.

 KFC is being targeted by the protesters for what they say are discriminatory
and unfair hiring, promotion and other personnel practices regarding minority
employees. In particular, they point out the severe lack of minority store
managers, even in outlets located within Black communities, and ongoing
intimidation of employees of color.

 Gay activists have added their voices to those protests and are focusing on
charges of anti-gay discrimination that have recently come to light.

 Denise Bentley, manager of a KFC store on W. Market Street in Louisville, in
1992 was asked by a KFC management representative to fire an employee because
he was gay. 

 Bentley, who is Black and a mother of two, had hired the employee away from
another fast food chain because of his efficient and courteous work manner.
 She praised his job performance and refused to terminate him unless the
company gave a good reason.  According to Bentley, KFC told her she must
"fire him because of the public's perception of gay people in the fast food
industry and their fear of AIDS," said Bentley.  "I felt if I had to
terminate this person based on their sexual orientation, then I was opening
up Pandora's box and giving KFC the opportunity to terminate anybody for any
reason, including their race, their weight, their disability, whatever.  It's
not an acceptable practice."

 A KFC representative in turn fired the employee while Bentley was out of the
restaurant on her day off.  Bentley says she herself has been targeted for
discrimination since the incident.  In Dec. 1993 she was released by her
physician to return to her job at KFC following a work-related injury.  The
company, Bentley said, had guaranteed her position at KFC during her
recovery.  However, as of this month she has not been rehired by KFC into her
original management-level position and is filing a lawsuit charging KFC with
discrimination based on her disability and race.
 "Until we as a group stop supporting these companies as well as any other
companies that show blatant discrimination, then they will not get the
message that this injustice will not be tolerated," said Bentley.

 Bentley is a board member of the Justice Resource Center (JRC), a group of
ministers and civil rights activists led by the Rev. Louis Coleman in
Louisville.  Rev. Coleman and JRC have played the lead role in organizing
community protests, vigils, pickets and a boycott of local KFC outlets.
 Every Saturday for the past several weeks JRC protesters and allies have
picketed outside of KFCs.  JRC is organizing the April 1 city-wide picket.

 JRC is demanding that KFC implement fair hiring and promotional practices,
in writing, for all its employees.  They are also targeting KFC parent
company PepsiCo and it's affiliates in Kentucky, including Frito Lay, Taco
Bell and Pizza Hut.

 Meanwhile, the issue has intensified in the local gay community because of a
pending vote on a gay rights ordinance.  On March 28, the Louisville Board of
Aldermen will vote on a controversial  measure that bans employment
discrimination based on sexual orientation.  There currently is no such
city-wide protection.  Rev. Coleman and other JRC activists testified before
the Board in support of the protections.

 "We're joining together in unity with the protests led by the
African-American leaders because we oppose racism and homophobia in the
workplace," said Carla Wallace, a long-time Kentucky activist.  Wallace is on
the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and
co-coordinator of the Fairness Campaign, a Louisville organization working to
end discrimination based on sexual orientation.  She recently received a JRC
Martin Luther King award in Louisville for her work on behalf of civil
rights.  "This effort was brought to our attention because of discrimination
against people of color at KFC.  We are also aware there has been at least
one case of discrimination against gay employees.  Community groups are
coming together in Louisville to call attention to these injustices." 

 It is unclear if KFC's alleged practice of terminating gay employees is a
company-wide policy.  KFC officials have not responded in a satisfactory way,
says Rev. Coleman.  Regardless, the charges -- especially of homophobia --
alarmed national gay activists, who drew a parallel between KFC and another
high profile fast-food chain.

 "The similarity between KFC and Cracker Barrel -- which openly discriminates
against gay employees -- is too close for comfort," said Robert Bray,
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force field organizer.   In the Cracker Barrel
case, which Bray helped break in 1991, the popular "family style" eatery
fired several employees because of their sexual orientation.  "These cases
expose the daily fear and discrimination gays must endure just to do their
jobs in this country," said Bray.  As it were, Cracker Barrel enjoys a brisk
business in Louisville, which has no current protection against anti-gay
discrimination.  Local African-American and gay activists vow to continue
their protest of KFC and keep pressuring the company until it acts in good
faith to address their grievances.

 Express your concern about the treatment of KFC workers by calling
1-800-CALL KFC (800-225-5532) or contacting President David Novak, Kentucky
Fried Chicken Corporation, P.O. Box 32070, Louisville, KY 40232,
(502)456-8300.

 For more information and to send letters of support, contact Rev. Louis
Coleman at the Justice Resource Center care of the First Congregational
Methodist Church,
(502)776-7688, 3810 Garland Ave., Louisville, KY, 40211; the Fairness
Campaign, 
(502)893-0788, fax (502)896-0577; or NGLTF's Robert Bray, (415)552-6448,
[email-masked].