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.