Your former employee Andrew has applied at your new company. He's an accomplished geek and you have an opening in the I.S. department. You know he's got the skills and can produce for the team.
But Barbara, who would manage him, has a rep for making snide comments about gays. Andrew is gay.
Discussion
So you let Barbara slide before?
If you haven't been assertive about it in the past, it's time to be now. It's your job as a manager to confront these issues. It's not too late to do your job.
Confront the behavior. The right of free speech doesn't extend to creating a hostile work environment. Now is the time to be a Change Agent.
Go to Barbara and say, "I know of a great candidate, but I'm reluctant to send you his name because of things I've heard you say."
Be direct. Say what you need to in the spirit of friendship, "I have to give you a piece of honest feedback. You've made some biased comments against gays. My assumption is that you don't even know you're doing it, or you didn't do it on purpose. I shouldn't have let them slide by in the past, but now I have to act. I have a candidate who's good and who's gay, but I don't want to place him in an environment where his manager may say or do things that may lead to his experiencing a hostile work environment. If that happens, not only will he probably leave and spread the word about his experiences here, but, worst case, we could be sued."
This kind of approach will almost guarantee a response—either she'll be surprised and open to the possibility she's got some personal work to do, or she'll react strongly in a way that shows that she isn't naive' but an anti-gay perpetuator.
If it's the latter, tell her directly, "I won't send that candidate to you. And if someone asks me why, I won't lie to them."
Harris Poll interactive points out that gays continue to face workplace hostility
It'd be a shame for Brian to visit Monster.com instead of coming to work for your company, although they do have an excellent article on gay discrimination which this colleague of yours can read the next time she's shopping her resume, if she decides not to join the 21st century.
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