ND businesses push for discrimination ban: Some stores cite workforce struggles

BISMARCK - As the North Dakota House prepares to consider a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, some business owners are using a workforce development argument to push for its passage.
Several businesspeople in Grand Forks and Fargo have argued that Senate Bill 2279 can be a marketing tool to help a state with more than 20,000 job openings.
“I feel that we should be doing everything that we can to let people know that when they move to North Dakota, whether it’s to work in existing industries or to work for companies that are growing or to start their own business, that we’re a state that welcomes and values all of their citizens,” said Jonathan Holth, a co-owner of the Toasted Frog restaurants. “First and foremost, I think this is the right thing to do.”
The Greater North Dakota Chamber, an influential organization at the state Capitol, has chosen to remain neutral on the legislation this year.
The bill passed the Senate 25-22 last month, and could be up for a final vote in the House this week. It would protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public services and in personal business transactions. Those protections already exist for race, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability.
The bill contains some exemptions for religious organizations.
Andy Peterson, the president and CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber, said the group’s board of directors decided to remain neutral on the legislation in a meeting last week after supporting it two years ago. He said the organization has spent a lot of energy on Common Core legislation already this year, and cited a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage later this year.
“That may end all questions in June,” he said.
Peterson said they’ve heard some concerns from small business owners who may lack legal resources to defend themselves from a discrimination allegation. While the chamber hasn’t conducted any surveys among its members on the issue, he said there are some “varying opinions” on the bill.
Dane Ferguson, who runs Ferguson Books and More in Grand Forks, said he has concerns that fired employees could raise discrimination complaints when they were actually fired for performance or other reasons. But he’s confident the courts could work those issues out.
“If you’re not hiring people based on their sexual orientation, I think that’s pretty disgraceful,” he said.
Opponents have brought up an instance of a florist in Washington state being sued for refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding because of her religious beliefs.
“It’s forcing people to violate their sincerely-held beliefs at the hands of the government,” said Kellie Fiedorek, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom in a committee meeting last week.
Under the North Dakota bill, the state Department of Labor and Human Rights would investigate discrimination complaints.
“If you run a good shop, and you’re not discriminating against your employees, then you have nothing to worry about with this,” Holth said.
North Dakota employers have struggled in the past few years with finding enough workers as the state’s economy boomed. A state-backed marketing campaign launched last year sought to help attract new residents to fill the 21,000 job openings the state now has.
Doug Burgum, a Fargo-based businessman who launched the Kilbourne Group, said a nondiscrimination bill could help market North Dakota as a more tolerant state, especially to young job-seekers. Burgum gave $10,000 to the state Republican Party last year, campaign finance records show.
“Every policy the Legislature is considering should be viewed through a lens of supporting workforce development in the state,” Burgum told the High Plains Reader earlier this month. “The aged 18- to 35-year-old demographic is particularly attuned to the social climate of our cities and state. Any laws we have that discriminate against or limit the rights of any citizens based on gender orientation create a barrier for recruiting and retaining talent in our state.”
Karen Stoker, owner of the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo, also pushed for the bill in a letter to the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead partly on the basis of workforce development, but also said it’s “the right thing to do.”
Rep. Joshua Boschee, D-Fargo, said the bill would mean North Dakota would have the same protections as some of its largest employers. He’s the state’s first openly gay lawmaker and a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2279.
Still, it’s not clear if the legislation will have enough support in the House. It fell by 20 votes in that chamber in 2009.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, opposes “any form of discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation,” his spokesman Jeff Zent said Friday. But he said they don’t typically comment on bills “until we see a final piece of legislation,” because it still could be amended.