Discussion on question by Tango Foxtrot: Conflict between one employee's religious freedom and another's sexual orientation

"now she's citing her religion as her reason for insulting him and talking shit about him" - which religion teaches their adherents to insult and talk shit about others, rather than turning the other cheek (or at least shutting up)? "In our state (US), it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of religious affiliation." - there is no US state that would call keeping your homophobic thoughts to yourself "discrimination". Talk to HR for advice in how to handle this. Do it now.

Just to understand. Could your question be rephrased as: "Can Helen get away with her disruptive behaviour by hiding behind her religion?" You admit as to being prejudiced against Mark so perhaps you should defer to someone else.

You are being discriminatory to Mark, despite your companies policies. You're allowing him to be bullied by a co-worker, the type of bullying that the average gay person will be scared of it escalating to physical assault. By using the phrase "lifestyle choice" it's clear you have a strong implicit, if not explicit, bias against gay people. By not doing anything you're at the point where _you're_personally going to be impacted - you're the manager . You're meant to have dealt with this already.

@TangoFoxtrot If they're an HR department worth their salt; they would take action. Harassment is not tolerable in a workplace, regardless of the reason.

@TangoFoxtrot And would HR be "leftist" if they took action against someone talking sh@t and insulting someone who enjoys hunting because their religious belief is that killing animals is wrong? HR simply has a bias against harassment and are out to protect the company from an harassment suit - if Mark were to start insulting and talking sh@t back at Helen, they would then be on Helen's side.

@TangoFoxtrot - you should be careful here. You have very limited knowledge of labor law and could be exposing your company to a lawsuit. see: oclaborlaw.com/labor5.pdf Seek professional HR help or this could end badly for you.

@TangoFoxtrot - (except for state government, except for some localities, etc) . Don't try to interpret labor law yourself. Too many gotchas, too many exceptions. Leave it to the professionals.

@TangoFoxtrot - I think you have a very simplistic understanding of "freedom of speech" - even in the US harassment and libel are both illegal - therefore placing (reasonable) limits on free speech.