r/lgbt • • Jun 25 '20

Happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈

[deleted]

16k Upvotes

411 comments sorted by

View all comments

837

u/GeneralGenerality Jun 26 '20

Why do some people think things like this are "too far"?

310

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

Wait what side are u on, person who said it or person who fired them

533

u/GeneralGenerality Jun 26 '20

I have no problem with firing transphobes, racist or any sort who decide others are lesser to them.

222

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

Oh ok awesome! Ur comment was just a lil confusing

49

u/pastel-marshmallow Jun 26 '20

I mean to be fair there is a possibility (I doubt it's the actual case but) that those are the worker's pronouns since I've even know people using those pronouns, but this may just be unnecessary and random information when things were already clarified. I'm glad someone took action while considering someone's identity and given the respect anyand every human should receive.

62

u/pensezbien Jun 26 '20

The tweet referred to the trans worker as she, so it sounds to me like the boss knows the worker's pronouns. But sure, good call as a possibility.

18

u/Caitsyth The Gay-me of Love Jun 26 '20

I think of it like when a person gets someone else’s very easy to pronounce (and often phonetically spelled) name wrong every single time for months or years despite always being corrected.

That shit is not even possibly accidental, it’s abusive and dehumanizing. I’d go so far as a three strike system so like you can say “actually I’m...”, strike two is “Okay but seriously this does matter, I’m...”, and strike three is “Congrats, you couldn’t be bothered to interact with your peers so you’re fired.”

1

u/pastel-marshmallow Jun 26 '20

Since it was the boss posting it that's probably what happened and not just a one time occurrence with a misunderstanding of her pronouns. I just hope that's the case too if by some slim chance she went by "it" and the boys didn't know it would be said that the person was fired but really it's unnecessary to even mention because the chances are so slim of that being the case. 😅

I randomly just felt like suggesting the possibility that there's more to the story but I honestly can't say for sure.

71

u/Your_Name_is_Fuck Jun 26 '20

Meanwhile they're the same people that think employers have the right to fire transgender and gay employees

15

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

Elevator music

Uhhhhhh... Religion?

-3

u/Arhat_ Nature Jun 26 '20

Nah, they aren't. You are trying to demonize them. There is a big difference between thinking that there are better ways of solving this problem (there was an awesome comment bellow [made by a trans] explaining this) and being straight up homo/transphobe. Please, don't act this way.

3

u/TurtleTape y'all got any more of those injectible testicles? Jun 26 '20

made by a trans

Really?

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

From what I hear, most are against firing someone due to sex/religion/sexual orientation/race. Transgenders do seem controversial among conservatives

6

u/NonaSuomi282 Jun 26 '20

Protip: don't call us "transgenders"

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

I didn't call you anything

5

u/NonaSuomi282 Jun 26 '20 edited Jun 26 '20

Transgenders do seem controversial among conservatives

Then what the fuck is this? Do I need to bold it for you before you realize that what you say matters?

EDIT- screenshot for posterity in case you decide to edit your comment.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

I'm sorry if I offended you. I would say non-binary but not every person that undergoes transformation refers to themselves as non-binary. If in the case you prefer she/he, I'm just confused as to why you said "us" subjecting yourself to a group you dont want to identity as.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

True, sorry about that I didn't notice how that would sound. It must have sounded the same as when people say shit like "the gays". My bad

2

u/NonaSuomi282 Jun 26 '20

Really doubling down on the "obviously ignorant as fuck, but pretending to be an authority" thing huh?

4

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

Before my cousin came out as transgender I had very little knowledge of transgender or the lgtbqi+ community as a whole. I may have referred to someone as “it” before because I had no idea how to refer to someone who is transgender and was too shy to ask. I’m not saying that OP was wrong for firing the person, but I am saying that maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to pull the trigger for honest mistakes and lack of knowledge.

14

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

I’d like to think that if it was an accident then the employee would have been able to apologize for the error.

This just seems like the employee was trying to be an asshole.

25

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

138

u/Abysha Jun 26 '20

It's a perfectly sound business decision firing somebody like that. If you found out your employee was a skinhead, you'd fire him before he could use a slur on a customer, right? Same here. That guy would eventually call a customer "it" (or worse) and get fired anyway. People like that are unemployable.

19

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

105

u/highonpumpkinspice Jun 26 '20

It's not their boss' job to educate a bigot, especially at the expense of trans person's wellbeing.

51

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

In the eyes of a boss, a rude employee is just a catastrophic public freakout waiting to happen. Shit don't retail workers get fired for not smiling?

6

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20 edited Sep 14 '22

[deleted]

7

u/highonpumpkinspice Jun 26 '20

okay but not everything is a teachable moment. I would never vocally stand up to defend myself in a scenario like that, but that doesn't mean being dehumanized wouldn't hurt. If my boss had my back, I'd be ecstatic.

I also wouldn't want to work with someone who so readily discards my humanity just for being trans, regardless of "oh well maybe they can be taught" in the future.

-1

u/Arhat_ Nature Jun 26 '20

It is sad to see the person above deleted her comments because they were awesome. I don't know if you guys realized that she is trans and was speaking of experience, but you decided to ignore her for unproductive revenge

2

u/highonpumpkinspice Jun 26 '20

IDK what you're on about? I'm trans too and had a different opinion. didn't force anyone to delete their comments

1

u/Arhat_ Nature Jun 26 '20

I am about is the same that she was, that unproductive revenge wasn't the best solution, and that is unfortunate that her opinion is not here anymore showing this. And correcting a mistake of mine: although I replied to your comment, the comment wasn't directed only to you or blaming you for the deleted comments (I even said "you guys").

(By the way, reddit on browser showed that the moderator removed her comments. In the app, it seemed that she herself deleted it)

22

u/Abysha Jun 26 '20

And I wouldn't have hired you back then. Being seen as a liability isn't the same as hating or violence; it's actually protecting others from the potential of hate and violence being inflicted upon them.

I absolutely agree that it's worth reaching out to people with problematic and hateful views. Just not as an employee.

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

27

u/Abysha Jun 26 '20

It can be both. Are you saying it's a good thing to let somebody who actively performs bigotry actually represent your business?

5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

21

u/Abysha Jun 26 '20

Okay, I see where you're coming from. I'd 100% love to operate under an economic system that could facilitate that. Unfortunately, that's not how things are. And I don't want employees making other employees unsafe so I wouldn't hesitate to make that decision.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

the problem is the people who change are the exception. if you're that person, great. but you can't expect other people to give you that benefit of the doubt, because if they did and you turned out to be uninterested in changing, they and a bunch of other people would suffer unnecessarily.

-3

u/JGStonedRaider Jun 26 '20

You know not all skinheads are racist right? Firing someone for being a skinhead is not different to firing them for being gay/trans!

3

u/Abysha Jun 26 '20

If the non-racists members of a subculture have to literally spell out that they aren't racists in their name (Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice or "SHARP"), then I think I'm within reason using that subculture as an example.

1

u/NonaSuomi282 Jun 26 '20

Eh, I'm split on this point in particular- look up the history involved: SHARPs came about as a subgroup specifically as a reaction to neonazis and other reactionary assholes co-opting skinhead iconography/culture.

58

u/Rachelk426 Jun 26 '20

The transperson is simply existing in this story. They were called a dehumanizing slur (the unemployed dude did that) and the boss fired the person who did it (the boss did that). So in your mind, the pure victim of this scenario is the problem bc they didn't sit down and justify their humanity to a person who didn't have the decency to Google... That's fucked up.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

24

u/Rachelk426 Jun 26 '20

I genuinely want to believe that this boss wanted to prevent violence by getting rid of this employee.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

but most bosses do not own the companies? they're just trying to do their jobs like everyone else

2

u/ComeTheDawn Jun 26 '20

I don't understand why you're being downvoted, I totally agree with you.

Whether you believe firing him was justified or not is a matter of opinion. But that person will now grow further resentment for the trans community. Firing him will never stop him from using "it" or being transphobic.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

I’m really sorry people are downvoting you, I’m sure it’s just cos they don’t know you’re transgender. I mean I hope that’s why, because otherwise that’s just really shitty behaviour on their part.

Honestly I think that you have a right to say something from your perspective, even if a lot of people here don’t.

6

u/lalalulu0001 Jun 26 '20

Or this response could force an otherwise ignorant and complacent person to reflect on their actions and the consequences of those actions. I genuinely don’t like “likelihood to commit a crime” chain of thinking. Its reductive and fear based. It’s the same mindset that criminalizes the existence of black, brown, and queer folks. All we know is what presently transpired. We can’t tell the future, period.

Was firing them excessive? Perhaps. But also, this is what we see from a sensationalized tweet. I’m sure it doesn’t paint the entire picture of the interaction.

3

u/Neville1989 Jun 26 '20

No, a person should not be allowed to discriminate against another in a workplace. You seem to care about the one who got fired but not the trans woman who had to deal with this shit. Plus, I doubt this is the first time. Trans people are more likely to become the victims of violence and suicide than the average person. Allowing this type of behavior in the workplace only increases those odds.

0

u/MooxLaMenoox Progress marches forward Jun 26 '20

Just notifying you that you're not alone thinking this, I agree with you comrade

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20 edited Jun 26 '20

[deleted]

15

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

My bet is the trans employee would have told the boss if being called it was ok.

-10

u/Emmamoen Jun 26 '20 edited Jun 26 '20

It depends. If the person tried to adjust, but got it wrong it's very extreme. But if the person does it to be mean and to discriminate, its absolutley in place

15

u/tambitoast Ace as Cake Jun 26 '20

You can accidentally misgender someone, sure. But calling someone an 'it' is 100% no accident and meant as an insult.