Should a company that promotes ”inclusion” and “diversity” end a 15 year relationship with a consultant because that person wrote an anti-gay marriage book? The answer is “yes” according to Bank of America and Cisco. Both companies fired Dr. Frank Turek over a an anti-gay marriage book he authored. The Bank of America firing comes several months after he was let go by Cisco Systems over the controversial book.
Dr Turek had been intermittently consulting in the area of leadership training and team building for Bank of America for the last 15 years. He has also worked with CIGNA, Coca Cola, Home Dept and many other major corporations.
But his relationship came to an abrupt end when an HR manager for Bank of America discovered Turek’s book during an internet search. ”I got a phone call from one of the HR managers there who said we’ve just learned someone googled you and found out you wrote a book called Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone and so we can’t have you teach here anymore,” said Turek.
To their credit, Bank of America has responded to Dr Turek’s written appeal to Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan. Some people within the organization have acknowledged the hypocrisy of firing a man based on his religious and political views while claiming to promote diversity and inclusion. As a result, Dr. Turek will be meeting with Bank of America’s head of diversity and inclusion next week.
We’ll see if Bank of America is able to do the right thing – Cisco Systems wasn’t.