I can no longer be fired for being gay! [Archive]

View Full Version : I can no longer be fired for being gay!

gimmethesimplelife

6-15-20, 1:57pm

Whoever would have thought that such a basic human right could come to the United States, of all places? I did not believe I would live to see this. I'm floored - I now have almost the level of human rights an Argentinian citizen has (not quite as Argentine lives are worth socialized medicine). Rob

Alan

6-15-20, 2:00pm

gimmethesimplelife

6-15-20, 2:23pm

Have you ever been fired for being gay?Yes. Twice - but admittedly awhile ago, in the 80's and 90's. And I lived somewhere this was perfectly legal so SOL and what a life lesson in the truth of America - one you yourself have been spared. Rob

beckyliz

6-15-20, 3:30pm

Good news. Still shaking my head that 3 of the justices voted against it. good grief.

bae

6-15-20, 3:36pm

Have you ever been fired for being gay?

My father has worked in places where being gay was grounds for termination, and he is gay. As a result, he had to conceal his lifestyle from his coworkers. Probably not the happiest of times for him.

JaneV2.0

6-15-20, 3:38pm

I was pleasantly surprised by that decision.

LDAHL

6-15-20, 3:50pm

I once had to sign a document affirming I wasn’t gay during my military service.

ApatheticNoMore

6-15-20, 4:12pm

You are aware you can be fired for any other reason or no reason right? At will employment. So why can't an employer fire one for any or no reason,and claim it has nothing to do with being gay? And how would you prove otherwise? Because generally one has no recourse for being fired just because. Heck if one was manipulative one could just very well set up job conditions that couldn't be met, and then oops you didn't meet them. But one has a lot more leeway and doesn't even need to do that, that's at-will employment. Most firings do qualify for unemployment, but other than that.

pinkytoe

6-15-20, 8:30pm

I had no idea job discrimination against gays was still allowed in some states. On a similar topic though, discriminating against employment of older folk is alive and well even though illegal.

Yppej

6-15-20, 9:13pm

I once had to sign a document affirming I wasn’t gay during my military service.

If there was a draft sounds like it would have been easy to get out of it. Just claim to be gay.

jp1

6-15-20, 9:54pm

If there was a draft sounds like it would have been easy to get out of. Just claim to be gay.

I have a friend who got out of the draft during vietnam this way. (not claiming, but actually being gay and admitting it.) He had to go before his town's draft board to plead his case and they then voted whether to believe him or not. By a vote of 3/2 he didn't have to join the army. The deciding vote was a friend of his father, "Joe" who told him that he would vote in his favor but only if my friend would agree that Joe could inform friend's father of what had occurred. Friend had already told his father that he was gay and said "go ahead and call him now if you'd like". Friend doesn't think Joe ever called his father.

jp1

6-15-20, 10:06pm

Personally I've never had an employer who had an issue with my sexuality. And for 30 years now they've all known about it because long ago I made the decision that I wasn't going to lie about it to anyone. Eleven years ago when we moved to San Francisco for SO's new job I was interviewing for jobs and when people inquired why I had moved to SF without a job I was honest about quiting my NYC job to move here for SO's job. No one batted an eye. Admittedly this is SF, so it actually would've been quite surprising to me if anyone had had a problem. There are just too many LGBT people here for it to be an issue. As an example, for a couple of years the building we live in, six units, had 67% of them occupied entirely by gay men, and we're in a sleepy bedroom part of town, not any of the trendy or specifically gay neighborhoods.

I do, however, have friends elsewhere that have lost jobs because they were gay. The most recent lives in upstate NY and had worked as an elementary music teacher at a catholic school. When NY state began allowing gay marriage he married his long-time partner. The school found out and fired him because of it. They had known of the existence of the partner for years, as well as their two adopted children both of whom attended the school, but felt that they couldn't have a teacher on staff who was married to a same sex partner since that went against the church's teachings. I'm not quite sure how all that is logical, but that's how it played out.

Teacher Terry

6-16-20, 12:32am

In states that aren’t right to work you can’t be fired for no reason.

bae

6-16-20, 2:55am

In states that aren’t right to work you can’t be fired for no reason.

Almost all states are employment-at-will, and you can be fired because your manager doesn't like the color of your shirt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment

Tybee

6-16-20, 9:31am

But in an at-will state you still can't fire someone for being female, being old, being a religion you don't like, being gay.

happystuff

6-16-20, 9:48am

But in an at-will state you still can't fire someone for being female, being old, being a religion you don't like, being gay.

Maybe not getting fired, but getting hired in the first place is often difficult for these reasons, even though it wouldn't be stated as the "official" reason.

Tybee

6-16-20, 9:49am

Maybe not getting fired, but getting hired in the first place is often difficult for these reasons, even though it wouldn't be stated as the "official" reason.
Exactly!!

jp1

6-16-20, 9:24pm

I remember reading about this case when it happened. Oregon's teacher of the year in 2014 was fired for being gay. Despite living in a state that had job protections for gay people. If he had lived in one of the states that didn't have protections until yesterday's supreme court decision he may have not ultimately prevailed.

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/6/8900589/gay-discrimination-oregon-teacher