A Queens jewelry manufacturer may appeal to the state's highest court after a judge ordered him to testify whether he thinks gays are repulsive and doomed to eternal damnation.

The case involves a former worker who claims he was fired by Ted Doudak, president of Riva Jewelry Manufacturing, after coming out. John Fairchild, 58, claims in a civil rights lawsuit that he was fired the day after he said at work that he is gay and his daughter is a lesbian. The lawsuit alleges that Doudak called gays and lesbians "repulsive" and that he regularly quoted biblical passages at work.

During a pretrial hearing before a master rather than a judge, called discovery, Doudak refused to answer questions by Fairchild's lawyer about the allegations claiming his views are constitutionally protected religious beliefs.

William Kaiser, Fairchild's attorney, objected and went to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead. Edmead ordered Doudak to answer Kaiser's questions. She ruled that no one can use their right to religious freedom "as a cloak for acts of discrimination.

In an interview with the New York Daily News Kaiser said that "a lot of discrimination against homosexuals has a religious motivation."

Congress returns from its August recess soon. And many gay Americans are starting to wonder whether Democrats intend to live up to the "Under new management" sign they hung up at the U.S. Capitol after last November's elections.

With few legislative workdays left before lawmakers become obsessed with the 2008 campaigns, now is the time for Democrats to produce results. And outlawing job discrimination against those of us who're gay should be a top priority.

Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews says he is eager to get moving. Andrews isn't just any Democrat. The New Jersey lawmaker chairs the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over workplace laws.

Andrews told me "it's very likely" he will hold hearings on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) soon, so it can get its first-ever vote on the U.S. House floor "this fall."

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Andrews' enthusiasm for protecting the rights of gay and transgender workers is a welcome contrast to some of the lows during the first eight months of Capitol Hill's new management: The Senate Judiciary Committee allowed appeals court nominee Leslie Southwick, who signed an outrageously anti-gay parenting decision, to advance to the Senate floor. [My comment: Thanks to California Democrat Diane Feinstein, who downplayed Southwick's credentials as a bigot.] And in June the House voted to keep telling the District of Columbia that it can't use federal money for its domestic partnership registry.

And many gay Americans are starting to wonder whether Democrats intend to live up to the "Under new management" sign they hung up at the U.S. Capitol after last November's elections.

Andrews told me "it's very likely" he will hold hearings

A U.S. House subcommittee heard testimony yesterday on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in most workplaces. Afterward, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in an e-mail that is "looks like the bill is going up for a vote in weeks, not months," but that the "radical right is a sleeping giant on this issue." The conservative New York Sun reported that while ENDA exempts "the hiring practices of religious congregations, as well as schools with a primary purpose of worship," programs such as "summer camps, nursing homes, soup kitchens, and other institutions linked to a congregation would not be exempt, unless they made a declaration of significant 'religious tenets.'"

programs such as "summer camps, nursing homes, soup kitchens, and other institutions linked to a congregation would not be exempt, unless they made a declaration of significant 'religious tenets

SEC. 6. EXEMPTION FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.

(a) In General- This Act shall not apply to any of the employment practices of a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society which has as its primary purpose religious ritual or worship or the teaching or spreading of religious doctrine or belief.

(b) Certain Employees- For any religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society that is not wholly exempt under subsection (a), this Act shall not apply with respect to the employment of individuals whose primary duties consist of teaching or spreading religious doctrine or belief, religious governance, supervision of a religious order, supervision of persons teaching or spreading religious doctrine or belief, or supervision or participation in religious ritual or worship.

(c) Conformity to Religious Tenets- Under this Act, a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society may require that applicants for, and employees in, similar positions conform to those religious tenets that such corporation, association, institution, or society declares significant. Under this Act, such a declaration by a religious corporation, association, educational institution or society stating which of its religious tenets are significant shall not be subject to judicial or administrative review. Any such declaration made for purposes of this Act shall be admissible only for proceedings under this Act.

Nearly two-thirds of all American adults (64 percent) believe it is unfair that US federal law currently allows for an employer to fire someone because they are gay or lesbian.

A similar majority (60 percent) of heterosexual adults were not even aware that federal law does not provide protections for employees on the basis of sexual orientation.

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An overwhelming majority (79 percent) of American heterosexuals also feel that how an employee does his or her job, and not their sexual orientation, should be the standard for judging an employee.

These are some of the results from the latest national Out & Equal Workplace survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications and Out & Equal.