You Don't Look Gay

I have two personal stories behind this piece; I have many stories, but these two are the ones that stick out the most to me while completing this presentation. First, I am closeted (to an extent), and I have out friends.

One story is simple; I work with someone who's transitioning, and sadly our department is filled with teens, so they tend to call him 'it,' refuse to socialize with him, and even do things purposely to piss him off just for them to laugh and joke… And I personally have been in the jokes, but never the name-calling, yet I've never stopped it either.

The two-story are that I no longer talk to a friend because I didn't freak out when Trump became president. And I didn't freak out because I knew, to a point, it would happen.

"We want to go back to when things made sense!"

"Where are the times when men were men?"

"Things were fine the way they were, what exactly are we changing?"

The funniest thing about these sayings is that the people saying them usually aren't the ones affected by the "rules" put in place, to begin with.

It was safe to say; people were tired "of all the changes," when they were tired of being "excluded from all the changes,." This is as if they were never involved in the change, to begin with, or even triggered the need for changes in the first place.

So it was no surprise when my family woke up the following day to see what we knew along; this country is as dark as it is revolutionary. People were "sick and tired," so they did something in a big way. That has affected so many people and relationships, including my own.

I also knew that being gay in my workplace would result in a storm of trouble for myself and the people around me. So I kept quiet about it until it became a thing. Now I have yet to encounter major homophobia at work because I'm afraid to say I'm it because 'What will other people (employers) think?".

There are currently federal laws preventing employers from discriminating against prospective/current employees by race, age, gender, and even genetics. However, there is currently no federal law preventing the discrimination of those with a different sexual orientation/gender identity.

To fully revolutionize the workplace, the American government needs to implement a law for LGBT+ individuals in their respective work settings. As a result, there was an executive order to help LGBT+ people in the workplace, an extension of the Civil Rights Act, Title VII laws, and Executive Order 13672 & 13673.

What are those? Here is a quick breakdown:

• Executive Order 13672 amended President Richard Nixon's Executive Order 11478 (1969), which initially prohibited discrimination in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, and age. Notice the individual who executed that order... It had been amended in 1998 by President Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13087 to include sexual orientation. In addition, executive order 13672 added "gender identity."

• Executive 13673 states that all employees deserve a safe working environment and equal pay, regardless of who they are (this applies to all the things previously listed above). If only the hospitality and retail sectors did that initially, their sectors wouldn't be struggling now.

The merit of your work should be the only base used in deciding whether or not you're going to receive advancement in your sector.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The fact that some people in our country are frightful of being themselves, not being able to progress in their sector because of their sexual orientation, is terrible for business and morally compromising.

The best people deserve the best positions, and whether they're gay or not, it doesn't destroy their work efforts, merit, or determination.

And for the individuals brave enough to show their colors, they deserve to be protected from those that claim they're not homophobia-they just don't "accept the lifestyle."