Congratulations on Your Wedding! And Condolences on Losing Your Job.

In a majority of US States, gay couples are able to get married, but then may get fired from work the very next day.

In a majority of US States, gay couples are able to get married, but then may get fired from work the very next day.


UPDATE JULY 17: Check out this link to read about and support the newly proposed Equality Act coming before the US Congress.

June 26, 2015 was indeed a very exciting and historic day for the LGBT community and our supporters as the United States Supreme Court ruled that same gender marriage is now a basic right for all Americans across all 50 states. This ends the past confusing patchwork of some states offering same gender marriage, others offering domestic partnership arrangements, while still others invaliding all forms of gay unions and relationships.

Just as this decision was being announced, I was in the middle of presenting “LGBT Diversity in the Workplace and Marketplace” at the Georgia Diversity Council’s half day “LGBT & Allies Diversity Summit” being held on the campus of my Alma Mater Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. Someone monitoring the Supreme Court announcements on their smart phone in the back of the room interrupted to break this momentous news, and the room exploded into cheering and applause.

After the session, I did a brief interview with one of the session’s later panelists, Mariela Romero, the Community Empowerment Director for Univision Communications, which offers Spanish-speaking televisions coverage including its channel in Atlanta. Mariela asked me to comment on the significance of this announcement as well as looking forward to what is next.

THE SIGNIFICANCE: This is absolutely huge, finally granting a universal right and one of the most basic human institutions and arrangements, marriage, to all Americans. I commented that with the mobility of the USA population frequently moving between states, it was critical to finally make same-gender marriage a common practice everywhere in our country. Same gender couples relocating between states that recognize or invalidate their marriages caused a huge amount of consternation and confusion. Something as basic as marriage equality and availability certainly needs to nationwide.

WHAT IS NEXT: Since I was there in Atlanta to present LGBT diversity within a business and organization framework, I did need to focus on the sad reality that, across a majority of US states, a gay person could get married one day and get fired from their job the very next. Employment nondiscrimination protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity is not law at the federal level as is employment protection based on gender, race, religion, etc. In most states, you can be the very best employee meeting and exceeding the requirements of your job, and your boss can fire you simply out of personal dislike for LGBT people.

ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) has been languishing in the US Congress for well over a decade, so like marriage in the past, a patchwork of employment protections is available only in some states (see map at bottom of blog.) Thankfully a vast majority of Fortune 1000 firms voluntarily include these protections in their own corporate non-discrimination policies (link to the Human Rights Campaign listing), and President Obama issued an executive order effective April 2015 requiring such protection for companies and their subcontractors with federal contracts. (link to my blog and federal site with the info.)

So let’s celebrate as many of our LGBT friends young and old get married, and let’s also be tireless advocates for also now providing universal employment protection across the entire United States!

Only the dark shaded states offer workplace discrimination protections based on gender identity and /or sexual orientation

Only the dark shaded states offer workplace discrimination protections based on gender identity and /or sexual orientation

A RANT: Facebook and LGBT bullying and hate speech

NOTE: Several useful resource links included at the bottom of the blog.

This 12-year-old boy, Ronin Shimizu of Fresno, California recently committed suicide as a result of intense bullying by classmates for being the only boy on his junior high cheerleading squad.

This 12-year-old boy, Ronin Shimizu of Fresno, California recently committed suicide as a result of intense bullying by classmates for being the only boy on his junior high cheerleading squad.

UPDATE: I received these useful links on handling hate crimes from a reader.
* How to combat hate crimes from the Anti-Defamation League
* Hates Crime Guide that includes links to dozens of resources, information on famous cases, etc.
* Definition of a “hate crime” from the Sydney Institute of Criminology.

# # # # # # #

OK, it is time for one of my “rant blogs” where I am going to discuss the epidemic of online hateful speech and verbal bullying of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people. Given the disproportionate amount of gay teens committing suicide and transgender people being beaten and murdered, our entire society must strongly address this.

In two recent posts that I made on my Total Engagement Consulting business site on LGBT diversity, some extremely hateful and inaccurate comments were posted. First, I do not understand why these haters would even see my posts in their Facebook feed since I pay to have them displayed to people who have designated subjects such as transgender equality, LGBT community and employment nondiscrimination as topics of interest. Second, I am completely baffled that when I reported the hate speech, Facebook ruled that the comments did not violate their community standards stated of “we allow users to speak freely on matters and people of public interest, but take action on all reports of abusive behavior directed at private individuals.”

Let me provide two examples.

In mid-November, I published a blog titled “Five Things Never to Say to Transgender People” in recognition of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Very sadly, over 80 transgender people were murdered in 2014 (link), most of which appear to be victims of targeted hate crimes. One young man responded to the post with “f*** your bulls***” and then continued to write, “I shouldn’t be seeing this garbage on my newsfeed in the first place. And stop over reacting drama queen, when was the last time transgender people got murdered? Remember all the sick homosexual people that pop up on the news everyday doing horrible, sickening things to children. Stop acting like your kind isn’t tainted with the most disgusting people this world has ever seen.”

Transwoman Mia Henderson  was found dead of “massive trauma” in an alley in Baltimore, Maryland in June of this year.

Transwoman Mia Henderson was found dead of “massive trauma” in an alley in Baltimore, Maryland in June of this year.


On December 4, I wrote a short paragraph announcement for my Facebook page after the US Department of Labor announced the implementation of President Obama’s executive order protecting LGBT government contractors. One young man responded to this post that he was very glad to see this news since he was previously fired from a job for being gay. Then a hater responded to this heartfelt post of gratitude, “Good for you, you dumb queer. You lost your job, now you can burn in hell.”

These are the exact kinds of things young LGBT people read online that leads to self-condemnation and later to harmful behavior including suicide. It also “gives permission” to haters to perpetrate bullying and even physical attacks. In a way, I consider Facebook partly responsible for these suicides and murders since they are failing to enforce their own community standards and contribute to harm by not condemning these kind of personal attacks and hateful posts.

Furthermore, I encourage all members of our society to strongly and actively condemn hate speech and bullying whenever possible. To stand by while our national epidemic of hate and violence festers is almost as irresponsible as participating in this behavior. One step everyone can take is when they see a friend or loved one participating in hate, realize that the perpetrator probably has self-image or self-hate issues of their own and recommend they enter intensive counseling or anger management class. If not, that person may one day snap, kill or harm someone, and spend years in prison.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I do hope this is read by a senior Facebook executive and that they will have a responsible staff member overseeing the Facebook community standards contact me to discuss addressing this. Perhaps the Facebook monitoring team could use some LGBT Diversity Awareness training.

SOME USEFUL RESOURCES:

The Tyler Clementi Foundation is a national organization committed to ending bullying, harassment and humiliation, online and offline, especially for marginalized youth.

Inclusion and Respect materials for educators from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.)

Anti-bullying resources from the National Education Association.

Friendfactor, an excellent organization with the mission of building strong active ally programs at schools and businesses.