I’ll get to the discussion of the firing(s) in Tennessee in a moment. First the national news. The US lost 540,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate climbed over 7%.

Back to our story. In Brentwood, TN a hotel owner has fired a man for being gay. No, this isn’t an accusation, but the owner’s own words, evidently. David Hill, the employee in question, was the human recources manager at the Arte Hotel in Brentwood near Nashville. Here’s a bit of the story from WSMV in Nashville:

David Hill is looking for a new job after he said he was fired Tuesday from a former Brentwood Holiday Inn, which now goes by the name Artee Hotel.

“They literally said to me because of my orientation and my alternative lifestyle, that I was not a fit for the hotel,” said Hill.

Hill said he used to be the human resources director and is shocked at the owner’s decision to dismiss him because of his sexual preference.

“The owner (Tarun Surti) said, ‘I don’t give a damn. They can sue me. I will not have any of the gays in leadership roles in my hotel.’ And that’s a quote,” said Hill.

While the owner was not available to talk to Channel 4, the assistant general manager, Leonard Stoddard, did comment. He said Hill was fired because “he was gay.” He said he was also the one who had to tell Hill that he was being removed from his position.

“The owner, Mr. Surti, comes from a culture that is not very tolerant to the gay lifestyle, and therefore he felt it necessary to have him removed from the workforce at the property,” said Stoddard.

“(He was fired) strictly because of his sexual orientation?” asked reporter Katina Rankin.

“I do believe that’s a very fair assumption,” asked Stoddard.

This story gets a bit silly. It seems Assistant Hotel Manager Stoddard is also gay and is evidently speaking so bluntly with the press because he, too, expects to be fired any moment. This can’t be good for poor Mr. Surti, the owner of Arte Hotels (oddly, only one hotel, in fact). If the hotel’s own employee manual says there will be no discrimination based of sexual orientation, then any good labor and employment lawyer is going to make quick work of Mr. Surti and Arte hotels. Mr. Surti therefore has a real legal problem on his hands. Looking at his web site, though, it appears he’s got bigger problems, like competence.

Brentwood, TN is pretty much America, and you’d expect that a website promoting a hotel in Brentwood would use simple and correct English. The Arte Hotels (there’s only one) web site is about as bad an example of writing I’ve seen on the web in a long time. Here’s the text from the “History of Arte Hotels” page:

History of Arte Hotel & Suites

Meaning of arte’ (artee)
art-y [ artee ]
Indian: A divine light in front of a God
English: pretentiously or self-consciously artistic ( informal )
Modern: Light House like structures, light to save lives

Holiday Inn Corporation of Memphis, Tennessee, introduced their new full service, high rise prototype for the early nineties. They built over fifty such hotel around the country and todate this prototype remained one of the finer Holiday Inn concept. The Brentwood hotel was built by the Holiday Inn Corporation and opened for business in 1989. Todate it remained one of the better performing hotel in Holiday Inn franchise. However, the new ownership recognized the unique opportunity to convert this property into a more luxurious brand and decided to change its name to Arte’ hotel & suites, a hotel with a boutique charm, with one goal in mind, to provide comfort of your home away on your holidays.

The man used the word “divine” in his discription of the hotel and then has the nerve to fire gay employees? Well, SNAP!

One thing is very evident. Mr. Surti does not know what he’s doing and is going to run the Arte Hotels, all one of them, into the ground. I suppose this isn’t news to Out & About Nashville, who are reporting also about Surti’s filing for bankruptcy. Could it be, as Mr. Surti claims, that the firings are for economic reasons, that he is cutting back? Not according to the Box Turtle Bulletin, and I’m going with them on this one. After all, they are in favor of unions between men and box turtles. Who wouldn’t be? Besides, they’ve got very snappy comments on their site.