Family Action Council Head Lashes Out at BlueCross for Gay Tolerance

A former state senator who heads the conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee has blasted the state's largest health insurer for showing a "cultural acceptance of homosexual conduct."

In an email, David Fowler berated BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee for its tolerance in dealing with suppliers and accused the company of joining the "culture wars."

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the missive was prompted by an August 24 letter sent by BlueCross to its suppliers in which it was stated that the company's diversity commitment extended to "small, disadvantaged, minority, women, service-disabled veteran, veteran-owned, HUB-zone or low-income areas and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender owned businesses."

"Appears that the insurer is trading in its traditional blue for a rainbow of colors," Fowler wrote.

A spokeswoman for the Chattanooga-based insurer said her company's commitment to diversity was hardly new.

"BlueCross is committed to supplier diversity as a good business practice," Mary Danielson told the Times Free Press via email. "As part of that effort we regularly mail a supplier self-certification form to our 3,000 vendors. We mail this form to update their business classification records in our system. Those classifications, provided by the federal government, cover a range of groups."

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