Last week, the new president of the Oregon Right to Life board of directors, Harmony Daws, was fired from her position as operations manager of a thriving Portland-area cleaning business, ostensibly for her religious and political beliefs. Two weeks prior, she had told her left-leaning boss, during a conversation they had in the context of their four-year friendship, that she had accepted the position as president.
After that conversation, her boss came to her again and told her to never mention her pro-life work. Her employer was cold and distant for the following week and a half until Friday when she fired Harmony for being a “discriminator” and for Harmony’s beliefs that she saw online, apparently including her blog and the ORTL website.
Employees who worked under Harmony varied in beliefs and lifestyles, including a Satanist, a Wiccan, a lesbian, and atheists too. Upon hearing of her firing, several of them told her they had never felt discriminated against in any way. They said she “loved everyone.” It was because of Harmony’s work running the daily operations of the company that her boss went from struggling to make payroll for three employees to a team of 14 employees with projected 2016 sales of over $500,000.
It is clear that Harmony (in picture above on right) was the one discriminated against, not the discriminator. Harmony said, “What my employer did was illegal. Firing someone based on their religious or political beliefs is a civil rights violation. I’m a libertarian and I support my former employer’s right to hire and fire as she chooses. However, she could have asked for a resignation over our difference of beliefs. To have been mistreated as I was by being fired, after my exemplary record as an employee, was unconscionable. Regardless, had I known then what the price to accept the presidency would be, I would still have accepted the position. Fighty-eight million children have lost their lives since 1973. Losing a job in my stand for their right to life was a small price to pay.”
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Had the situation been reversed in today’s political climate and Harmony had fired someone for their belief that abortion should be legal, it is virtually guaranteed they would have sued her for discrimination. Like the bakers who refused to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding, Christians and pro-lifers are finding themselves under attack around the country but especially in Oregon. It is more important than ever that those who don’t toe the new “party line” continue to stand up for their beliefs, vote for politicians who support their right to free speech, and even consider running for office themselves.
Harmony will be continuing as president of ORTL, is opening her own residential cleaning business in Portland, and remains unafraid of whatever the “other side” might throw at her next.
