Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A Reminder That Simply Being Gay Can Get You Fired, Regardless of Actual Job Performance

Imagine if your partner/spouse was being abusive to you.  Of course you would call for help, and hope that that help would indeed come.  But would you expect to be fired from your job, as a result of your call for help?

Down in Hattiesburg, MS, Andre Cooley is now a former Corrections Officer, because he called 911 to help him deal with his allegedly violent boyfriend.  When the Sheriff, Billy McGee, found out that Cooley was gay, he authorized Cooley's firing (h/t Rod).  It didn't matter what Cooley's record on the job was.  All that mattered was that Cooley was gay (can you imagine this happening to a female Corrections Officer who called 911 about an abusive boyfriend/husband?).  According to an article from the Clarion-Ledger, McGee said the following:  "He got in a fight with his boyfriend, and the police were called to his house for a domestic disturbance....Those kinds of incidents don't speak well for people in law enforcement."

I just want people who read this blog, particularly those who aren't gay, to understand what happened to Andre Cooley.  The man was fired simply because he was gay.  Not too long ago, someone commented on an earlier post saying that gays could live in peace, but that we choose to marginalize ourselves (I guess like we choose to be gay, right?).  Tell that to Andre Cooley.

Too few people in this country know that in the vast majority of states a person can be fired simply because his/her boss does not like the fact that he/she is gay.  And there is no recourse.  That has to change.

3 comments:

TC said...

If being gay = having a boyfriend, then yes, he did get fired for being gay.

If being gay = what you want to do or who you are attracted to, then no he didn't.

hscfree said...

Did you actually read the comments from the Sheriff? And are you saying that I am lying about the ability for people to be fired for being gay?

Micheal Sisco said...

I'm totally confused here ... In a weird way, TC is right ... the corrections officer would not have been fired if he kept his attractions to himself ... he would still have a job if no one knew about what he did in his bedroom ...

But he had the AUDACITY of calling for help with an abusive person ... I smell some Taliban crappola here ... the corrections officer should have just dressed in a burqa and TOOK the ass kicking he so richly deserved