Anti-Gay Taunting at Rangers' Hockey Games Is Marketing Failure

Gay hockey fans are accusing Madison Square Garden and the New York Rangers of enabling an anti-gay culture at Rangers games, reports The New York Times. One longtime season-ticket holder who is regularly broadcast on the Garden's jumbo screen dancing to energize the crowd is often taunted as "Homo Larry." Fans told the Times about an incident not long ago when the New York City Gay Hockey Association, a recreational league, was booed after its name flashed briefly across the jumbo screen. "If I take a friend who is also gay who, for lack of a better term, is not as masculine, I'm always sitting there a little tense. Like, is somebody going to say something to us? And it's made it not quite as fun as it used to be," said Ray Stankes, 50, who is gay. He canceled his season tickets after being a 25-year season-ticket holder. Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a nonprofit group that promotes tolerance of gays and lesbians, and Jeff Kagan, the director of the gay hockey league, wrote to Rangers General Manager Glen Sather in November and asked him to create a fan-education program that denounces anti-gay remarks. Read how one group's anti-gay efforts backfired against Ford Motor Co., and learn all about the preferences of the LGBT market and how best to reach them.

'Lunatic Asylum' Opens to Gawkers

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, W.Va., is now open to tourists. Tours of the 307-acre, 19th-century mental institution cost $10 to $30 and reveal the evolution of mental healthcare, the Civil War, the Great Depression and architecture, reports The Associated Press (AP). The hospital is a National Historic Landmark that once housed more than 2,000 patients but has stood largely silent since 1994. Some people object to using the former hospital as a tourist attraction. Jerry Kirkpatrick, an international business and marketing professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, said the marketing of the hospital "cheapens and denigrates the whole field of psychology." But Rebecca Jordan, whose family owns the hospital, replied, "This part of history is vital, and you cannot bury what you don't like," reports the AP. "Should we take down the Holocaust museum? Should we completely deny all that happened because it's not favorable? Because it might hurt a few feelings?" After struggling to find a suitable, sustainable use, the state sold it at auction last summer for $1.5 million to Jordan's father, Joe. Read how mental illness is the hidden disability in the workplace.

Black Man Becomes First Black Rabbi on Rabbinical Board

Capers Funnye, who as a child was reared Christian in the segregated South and who converted to Judaism in his late teenage years, is now the first Black rabbi to sit on an all-white rabbinical board and the first Black rabbi elected to Chicago's Board of Rabbis, reports National Public Radio. He is one of 27 Black rabbis in the country. Funnye leads the Chicago-based Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. Funnye told NPR that the obligatory white depictions of Jesus bothered him when he was young. But as he learned more about Judaism's long history in Ethiopia, he realized that "some of these people had to look something like me." Check out the Religion in the Workplace roundtable in the Nov./Dec. 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine for answers to four key questions employers ask about religion, and read Christian, Hindu & Muslim: How Will Your Company Manage Religion at Work? to get best practices for addressing religion in your workplace.

Speak English or Else? Philly Cheese-Steak Shop Can Keep Signs

The owner of Philadelphia cheese-steak restaurant Geno's Steaks wants his customers to only speak English [scroll down], so he posted signs that read, "This is America: When ordering please speak English." Wednesday, in a 2-1 vote, a Commission on Human Relations panel found that the signs do not violate the city's Fair Practices Ordinance, reports MSNBC. Immigration concerns and dealing with an increasing number of customers who don't speak English prompted shop owner Joe Vento to post the signs, he told MSNBC. In February 2007, the commission found probable cause against Geno's for discrimination, but the commission allowed the signs to remain because they did not say service would be refused if a customer did not speak English, said the commissioners. Read about the biggest cause of discrimination against Latinos and find out why, when it comes to getting fired for not speaking English, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking a stand.

Women Entrepreneurs: 'Make Mine a Million-Dollar Business'

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