Of course there is. Almost nothing in the Constitution prohibits private persons from discriminating against anyone, for any reason. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, has a perfect right to hate the guts of every black or Jew on earth, wish them all dead, and tell his feelings to anyone who will listen. Nor can any law require him to date one of those persons, or invite them to his dinner parties. Despite what some people who never learned basic civics might want to believe, there is no "Rainbows and Unicorns" clause in the Constitution. If that mean fact gives some collectivist dim bulbs in this country a big owie and makes them feel all icky, that's just too damned bad. Individual liberty includes the right to detest and condemn certain people and actions, and to say so.
Unless this fire chief was somehow coercing employees to accept his booklets, I don't see how what he did amounted to unconstitutional state endorsement of a particular religious belief. Nothing says any American has to approve of homosexual behavior. Many millions of people consider it immoral and unacceptable, often on religious grounds. It sounds to me like the local homosexuals screeched loudly and angrily enough to intimidate this mayor into knuckling under to them. Wait until organizations that support incest, or polygamy, or bestiality are shrieking and calling for some official's head because he dared to bruise their precious feelings by calling their sexual practices immoral. A free country is not for the thin-skinned.
"A free country is not for the thin-skinned."
I agree. The excessively politically correct are exactly that, the thin skinned that are doing little more than looking to be offended to take advantage of, and leverage, their protected class status to punish those with whom they disagree.
In order to maintain free speech
for everyone, you have to have enough wherewithal to ignore the free speech that you don't like, and this is where all this excessive politically over-correct fail.
Of course the Chief should be allowed to hand out his book )off work hours), the same way that those he offers it to have the freedom to decline to accept it, and the same way that there better not be any repercussions for either accepting or declining to take the book.
"Wait until organizations that support incest, or polygamy, or bestiality are shrieking and calling for some official's head because he dared to bruise their precious feelings by calling their sexual practices immoral."
I figure it can't be far off now. Seems like it's just around the corner, before even Obama is out of office. I'd add NAMBLA to that list as well.
I should have clarified: The workplace has no constitutional rights. If you can't keep your discriminatory comments to yourself your boss can fire you at any time. A member of the KKK can hate anyone he wants, true, but the minute he passes out a pamphlet at work he can be fired. The chief represents the government to his subordinates and has no right or moral ground to spew his religious non-sense on anyone under his authority.
"The workplace has no constitutional rights."
I disagree with this.
"your boss can fire you at any time"
True, as most states in the nation have an 'at will' employment policy. You work there at your will, and at the boss' will. Either can terminate employment at a moment's notice. It's not related to constitutional rights, as far as I understand.
If you start handing out materials,
any materials, that the boss doesn't want handed out, he can ask you to stop. If you don't, he can fire you for not following direction. Not because you are handing out stuff, and especially not that you
might discriminate against someone else. Have to actually have done it before you can be fired for that.