
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993                   TAG: 9311250083
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEBANON, TENN.                                LENGTH: Medium

CRACKER BARREL SHAREHOLDERS DUNK ANTI-BIAS POLICY

Shareholders of the popular Cracker Barrel restaurant have defeated a measure that would create an anti-discrimination policy at the folksy family eateries, accused by critics of refusing to hire gays.

Cracker Barrel said two years ago its 163 restaurants would hire only heterosexuals, but subsequently rescinded that rule. Gay activists and others say the rule still exists.

The New York City Retirement System, one of the nation's biggest institutional shareholders of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. proposed the anti-discrimination policy Tuesday at a closed-door shareholders meeting at the company's training center, 30 miles east of Nashville.

The proposal drew 14 percent of the stockholders' votes, which under securities rules will allow the issue to be raised again next year.

Cracker Barrel operates country-motif restaurants with adjoining gift shops in 20 states, mostly in the South and Midwest.

It has outlets in Christiansburg and Staunton and briefly proposed a restaurant in Roanoke.

Samuel A. Garrison of Roanoke, an advocate for gay rights, declined to comment. "I don't want to react to that," he said, adding he was unfamiliar with the facts of the shareholder meeting.

Eleven Cracker Barrel workers were dismissed at the time the 1991 policy on hiring heterosexuals became public. It was unclear whether the firings were related to the policy. The workers were not rehired.

This week's vote was 77 percent against the anti-discrimination proposal, 14 percent for and 9 percent abstaining. Securities and Exchange Commission rules allow shareholder proposals to be considered at the next annual meeting if the proposals generate at least 3 percent of the vote.

Despite the company's disavowal of the anti-gay hiring policy, gay groups say the policy is intact and enforced.

Not so, Cracker Barrel chairman Dan Evins said in a statement.

"We hire and promote men and women solely on the basis of their qualifications," he said.

Adjusted for stock splits, Cracker Barrel's stock has nearly tripled in value since the anti-gay flap. It closed Wednesday at $26.50 a share, down 50 cents, on the Nasdaq national market.

by CNB