As a young woman who does not necessarily fit the stereotype of being lesbian, I am always having to re-come out, which as I have learned has its advantages. I would like to explain to everyone what people who are openly gay have to deal with when trying to find or keep work, because even as a member of the LGBTQ community, I had no idea that the hype about discrimination in the workplace is true until it happened to me. Seriously, I just found out that it is 100% still legal to fire someone over their sexuality (almost laughable how ridiculous that is).
First, I am going to start with this cute little experience I had just this past year.
I, a little 19 year old girl, was working at my same job I have had at a little pizza shop since I was about 16 years old. I gave pretty much my whole working career with short breaks in between to one boss that I thought really cared about me. You can only imagine my dismay when I started getting treated a bit differently immediately after coming out at work. Everyone must understand that I am a very professional person, and IF this workplace was even a touch professional, I would have never told my boss and introduced her to my S/O. This was a very family oriented environment, so I thought that I was going to receive support as I was trying to come out to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, that was not the case. My boss began to give me the cold shoulder, and everything went downhill from there. My S/O even came in once as a paying customer and got shooed out quickly, even though she was still eating and doing her homework (not okay). Another common occurrence was my boss's inability to treat me as my peers' equal; all of a sudden I was some sort of invalid, even though my education level surpassed anyone that worked at that store at that time.
I think that I let this kind of discrimination and outright rudeness last about a week until I just stopped showing up. Any young, educated woman, LGBTQ or not, would not put up with this, especially not for such a small wage. Was I fired? No. Was I being pushed out? Indefinitely. If my boss had to fire me, it was much more of a hassle than if I just quit. I'd be curious to know if any fellow LGBTQ friends got edged out of a job similar to me.
I think my former boss meant no malice, but at the end of the day, I truly was not going to be gay-bashed by my superior every time I went into work. Even in a "family-oriented" environment, I do not feel like constantly getting put down! Honestly, don't we all deserve a workplace where we feel comfortable enough to just work and do our job? I saw this happening to another co-worker before I ever even thought about coming out, and I should have known better. I saw it and only until it happened to myself did I recognise it for what it was. Discrimination.
We may have the right to wed, but I can't get married without a job. Let's fix this.
