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A Seattle official received a sarcastic award for banning city workers from displaying Christmas or Hanukkah decorations in their own homes during Zoom calls to avoid offending colleagues with different beliefs.
Gloria Ngezaho is the workforce equity manager for King County, which encompasses Seattle, and is a recipient of the Ebenezer Award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Ngezaho’s draconian edict was first revealed in November, and he was presented with the award last week for his ‘Guidelines for Christmas Decorations’ rules.
The guidelines prohibited county employees from displaying religious items in their video backgrounds, including Nativity sets, the crucifix, the Star of David and menorahs.
The rules explicitly state that public displays of religious belief “may cause discomfort to co-workers or members of the public who do not share that particular religion.”
Gloria Ngezaho, who serves as the Workforce Equity Manager for the King County Human Resources Department in Seattle, Washington, devised “Holiday Decoration Guidelines” for Christian and Jewish county employees to avoid offending colleagues with different beliefs.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced the winner of the ‘Ebenezer Award’ last week
‘Some employees may not share your religion, practice any religion, or share your enthusiasm for Christmas decorations. Displays of religious symbols may only be displayed in an employee’s personal work space,’ the memorandumfirst obtained by Seattle-based journalist Jason Rantz, he said.
Dubbed “the most outrageous offender” of this year’s winter break, Becket compared King County’s receiving the Ebenezer Award to “handing over a lump of coal in recognition of meanness on a grand scale.”
Past Ebenezer Award winners include the American Humanist Association, which tried to stop schools from sending care packages to children in need; the Department of Veterans Affairs, which prohibited employees at its Salem, Virginia, facility from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans; and the University of Minnesota, which two years ago banned Christmas colors, Santas, bows, dreidels and even wrapped gifts on campus.
“King County religious employees will likely feel like the looted residents of Whoville this Christmas and Hanukkah season,” said Montse Alvarado, Becket’s COO and CEO. “The government has no right to deprive its employees of Christmas cheer by forcing them to take down their nativity scenes and menorahs, particularly in their own homes.”
“This is the time of year that Americans should come together in the Christmas spirit to support one another and spread joy and hope,” Alvarado added in a statement. But, as always, there are bureaucrats like those in King County who remove religion from the Christmas season. Let’s hope their hearts grow a little this Christmas.
The guidelines prohibited King County employees from displaying their Christmas or Hannukah decorations, including Nativity sets, crucifix, Star of David and menorahs, while working from home.
Montse Alvarado, Becket’s chief operating officer and chief executive, said that “the government has no right to rob its employees of the holiday cheer by forcing them to remove their nativity scenes and menorahs, particularly in their own homes.” Pictured: A Christmas parade in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle
Ngezaho previously shared a “personal thoughtful piece” with King County employees titled “Black Lives Matter.” What’s next?, after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020
DailyMail.com has contacted King County for comment.
Contrary to his polarizing stance on this year’s holiday season, Ngezaho previously shared a “thoughtful, personal piece” with King County employees titled “Black Lives Matter.” What’s next?’, following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, along with the world, I witnessed the murder of George Floyd at the hands, or should I say on the knees, of a white police officer. I sat quietly, with my family, angry and not knowing what to do,’ she wrote, recalling a time when her four-year-old daughter asked her to be careful while she left for work. , shortly after Floyd’s death, which sparked protests in the US.
‘It wasn’t long after that I decided to share my thoughts with my network. This was a space that I needed at that moment, because my whole family was suffering and I needed to let out the fire that was inside of me.’
‘[…] Contrary to the rhetoric out there, the challenges we face are not between people of black skin and people of white skin. This is about everyone, at least everyone who does not associate or subscribe to white supremacy or racism,” Ngezaho added.
Seattle was once convulsed by protests, clashes with local police and looting following the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd two years ago.
Black Lives Matter protesters march down a street in downtown Seattle in June 2020, as the city had to impose a curfew in the wake of nationwide race riots.
“There are many people in my circles who have tried to reframe this fight against racism and made it look like it was a fight between black people and white people. I have had to continually review and correct them, making it clear that we are fighting a cancerous ideology, white supremacy, not the people.”
The Kings County employee further wrote that he had to remind himself not to be provoked by other people’s answers, as “it’s so much easier to make mistakes and make things worse in the heat of the moment because each answer tends to be reactionary.”
Finally, two years ago, Ngezaho had to remind himself that he is not alone in his fight against racism.
“When I say I’m not alone, I don’t mean there are other black people facing the same struggles and fighting alongside me,” he wrote.
‘I want to say that there are many people of all skin colors (Asian, black, white, Latino, native, mestizo…) who are with me, marching with me, thinking with me, fighting with me, many times with their own lives. . On the line.’
‘This brings me back to the first point I made; this is not a problem of blacks against whites, but of all against racism.’