An oldie, but goldie.
“Sorry I can’t come to work, still gay”
Psychiatry has not always been kind to the LGBTQ community. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness in many countries as late as the mid-20th century—if it was not classified as an outright crime. Even Sweden, that Scandinavian bastion of openness and equality, identified being gay as a disorder as late as 1979.
That year, a group of Swedes took advantage of the legal framework that made being gay an illness and called in sick to work, claiming their homosexuality as the reason. One woman, from the southern province of Smålandeven, managed to get Social Security benefits for calling in gay.
I think having been repeatedly fired/getting chased out of my career field for being trans should qualify me for some kind of benefit. When the fascism stops, will there be reparations?
To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy’s bit about men losing their hair:
“You will never hear a competent business owner say ‘I hate trans!’ Because as long as you’re a good worker, we like you! And we’re not going to say anything that’ll make you get up and leave.”
After I was outed at the middle school I worked at (and it is currently illegal for me to use a men’s restroom - which I do, because if you put a fedora on me I’d look like a professional 2010s r/atheism “quote maker”), I found another job. I went through a week of training; after my background check came in the fired me. Not only fired me, but tried to not pay me for the training. Spent months fighting to get a check. Was pretty desperate too - the divorce process was also wonderful cognizant of my status as a queer/second class American.
When I was in college, I worked a bunch of odd jobs. I had to give my drivers license to the day labor director once for a W2 or something - it still said “F” because surgery was $5500 (insurance don’t cover - lol) - I never got a gig again after that. Turned to sex work to make rent. Have genuine PTSD, but it’s not the kind you can talk about in polite company.
I think I’m pretty fucking bright and capable - but living in a world where someone digging up a picture of me in my high fucking prom dress could get me fired is kinda breaking my brain at this point. I’d love to be able to move to a place where the fact that I have a vagina isn’t a massive handicap and I can do the job I love and was born to do and am really fucking good at - but wait, the resources to be able to do that are based on hiding, being exploited, or that case where I am too fucking useful to let go. I’m just going to have to burn myself out until I can afford to move to someplace where I’m not terrified that my pharmacy will stop filling my hormone prescriptions.
Note that there’s a typo in the source article:
One woman, from the southern province of
Smålandeven,Småland, even managed to get Social Security benefits for calling in gay.
In other words, they be searching for new jobs.
Leopards/faces, etc. These people were fine with contributing their cogs to the evil machine that is facebook in exchange for a ridiculous salary, but now want it to be a big deal when it affects them more specifically.
Typical Divide and conquer - Stop demonizing people who work for a living - it’s no different than demonizing every single American because of US foreign policy. Blame those at the top making their greedy decisions and the puppet masters behind them.
Completely fucking wrong. People make the systems, and incentivize and even work for said systems that oppress, that doesnt make you free of responsibility in the least, quite the opposite. Americans are so afraid of personal responsibility its beyond insane.
You worship work culture so much you think its okay no matter what you do as long as you work, absolutely pathetic and disgusting
Wrong. These people can’t handwave away their portion of responsibility for the current situation. They chose to lend their skills to a company with a long, well-documented track record of actions harmful to society. If you can get hired by one of the FAANG companies you could also get hired by nearly any company.
“Sorry, cough cough. I’m just feeling too gay to come into work today. It’s a bad case - I think it might be catching!”
I’m Doctor Mario, and as a certified doctor I can tell you that that’s not the gay cough but rather your lungs wanting to escape the forest fire smoke on their own. No sick days btw, you have to take PTO.
LOL
They are also moving to Texas if I read the story I saw right. I’d catch a mega case of gay to not move there or go back to work until I found a new job.
Moving to texas as a remote california tech worker is incredibly common, but it mostly comes down to not wanting to pay california taxes. That being said, it’s important to note that the majority of west coast tech workers give fuck all about the common good or societal improvements, or they wouldn’t work for facebook/google etc
That’s all right-wingers, though, isn’t it? Until life slaps them in the tits and all the horrible shit they champion affects them personally.
Very true, though I think in the early days of the Silicon Valley boom most tech workers were liberal democrats, whereas since tech finally became very measurably lucrative, it’s since been flooded by neocons and techno-libertarians
