Denver Rescue Mission to remove offensive language from employee handbook draft

Nov. 22—The Denver Rescue Mission found itself in hot water this week after reports emerged concerning language in an updated employee handbook. The handbook, which is updated annually, appeared to discriminate against gay and lesbian, as well as transgendered employees.

The handbook forbade employees from "acting on same sex attraction" and "rejection of one's biological sex," according to published reports. Denverite first published the story. Denver Rescue Mission has issued a statement in response, saying it will pause implementation of the changes pending a thorough review.

Reports of the language emerged one day before the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.

The controversy also emerged as the Denver Rescue Mission prepared for Thanksgiving, an important and busy time of year for the organization. The Mission is giving away "banquets in a box" to families in need for the holiday.

During Monday's city council meeting, Councilwoman At-Large Robin Kniech, denounced the handbook's language.

"I personally co-sponsored several of the funding mechanisms that provider is using to serve people experiencing homelessness in our community, and I would be ineligible to work under that policy," she said. "I am angry... our city bans discrimination not only in services to clients but also in employment."

Kniech is an attorney and was the first member of the LGBTQ community elected to the Denver City Council in 2011. She is also the longest serving LGBTQ elected official in the state of Colorado.

In the shadow of the Club Q shooting, Kniech highlighted the rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiment nationwide in a statement. She says this rise amounts to a denial of and her — and the community she is a part of — right to exist and function as members of society.

"Today provides a grim opportunity for those who may not have understood that connection previously, to choose a different path in their own policies and practices," she wrote in a statement.

Kniech left the Monday meeting early to attend a Denver vigil to honor the Club Q patrons shot and killed.

The Denver Rescue Mission is a faith-based organization that has been in operation for 130 years. The Rescue mission currently has a $13.7 million contract with the City and County of Denver. An additional $8.7 million was added to that contract in a February amendment.

Their contract includes a section, two pages into the nearly 20 page contract, prohibiting the Rescue Mission from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, among other factors.

While no changes have been made to the employee handbook yet, the Denver Rescue Mission said the language in question will be removed.

"At this point, our senior leadership board is set to meet in the coming days and a more clear and concise update to that language will be distributed to the employees," Stephen Hinkel, a spokesperson for the Denver Rescue Mission, told the Denver Gazette Tuesday. "We are taking the language that was in there out; we have not decided on what future language looks like for that section of the handbook."

It's not entirely clear how the discriminatory language got into the draft handbook in the first place, especially given the legal requirements set forth by the city contract. Hinkel was unable to provide immediate comment, saying he needed clarification from the organizations Human Resources department.

But he did say the offensive language would be removed.

"In particular, the phrases 'acting on same sex attraction' and 'rejecting of one's biological sex' will be removed," Hinkel wrote in an email. "We will be engaging in further discussion before asking employees to sign the handbook."

The drafting of the handbook is a top down effort, according to Hinkel, and employees are not involved in its creation.

"Leadership at the Mission updates the handbook on an annual basis, and then employees are asked to sign it," Hinkle said. "An organization without any level of guidance or clarity or accountability, if you will, isn't exactly an organization that's always being run on the right foot."

Many other organizations have employee handbooks, Hinkel said.

"The Denver Rescue Mission handbook is updated regularly to stay in compliance with all federal, state and city ordinances," he wrote in an email statement. "To the best of our knowledge, our handbook is compliant with all federal, state and city ordinances so we can serve the most vulnerable."

The difference, however, is the context and timing in which the messages were seen, according to Councilwoman Kniech.

"Today is Transgender Day of Awareness, where we recognize transgender individuals taken before their time by violence," she wrote in the statement, referring to Sunday. "And today we awoke to the news of 5 lives lost and 25 injured at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs."

Reports of Denver Rescue Mission's employee handbook emerged Friday. The Club Q shooting occurred Saturday night.

While the motives of the gunman aren't known, the shooting in what many hailed as the only LGBTQ safe space in Colorado Springs comes amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiment.

After the shooting, vigils were held across the state and nation in honor of the victims. Councilwoman Kniech implored Denverites to keep their hearts open to a path forward, despite their anger and hurt.

"As angry and as hurt as I am, and as I know our community is today, we have got to leave a path open for reconciliation," she said. "But I can tell you that the path to changing that policy and to repairing the harm with employees exists; it has to exist because if it doesn't, then we're left with the division that created the Q Nightclub."