This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
An oldie, but goldie.
"Sorry I can't come to work, still gay"
Psychiatry has not always been kind to the LGBTQ community. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness in many countries as late as the mid-20th century—if it was not classified as an outright crime. Even Sweden, that Scandinavian bastion of openness and equality, identified being gay as a disorder as late as 1979.
That year, a group of Swedes took advantage of the legal framework that made being gay an illness and called in sick to work, claiming their homosexuality as the reason. One woman, from the southern province of Smålandeven, managed to get Social Security benefits for calling in gay.
I think having been repeatedly fired/getting chased out of my career field for being trans should qualify me for some kind of benefit. When the fascism stops, will there be reparations?
To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy’s bit about men losing their hair:
“You will never hear a competent business owner say ‘I hate trans!’ Because as long as you’re a good worker, we like you! And we’re not going to say anything that’ll make you get up and leave.”
After I was outed at the middle school I worked at (and it is currently illegal for me to use a men’s restroom - which I do, because if you put a fedora on me I’d look like a professional 2010s r/atheism “quote maker”), I found another job. I went through a week of training; after my background check came in the fired me. Not only fired me, but tried to not pay me for the training. Spent months fighting to get a check. Was pretty desperate too - the divorce process was also wonderful cognizant of my status as a queer/second class American.
When I was in college, I worked a bunch of odd jobs. I had to give my drivers license to the day labor director once for a W2 or something - it still said “F” because surgery was $5500 (insurance don’t cover - lol) - I never got a gig again after that. Turned to sex work to make rent. Have genuine PTSD, but it’s not the kind you can talk about in polite company.
I think I’m pretty fucking bright and capable - but living in a world where someone digging up a picture of me in my high fucking prom dress could get me fired is kinda breaking my brain at this point. I’d love to be able to move to a place where the fact that I have a vagina isn’t a massive handicap and I can do the job I love and was born to do and am really fucking good at - but wait, the resources to be able to do that are based on hiding, being exploited, or that case where I am too fucking useful to let go. I’m just going to have to burn myself out until I can afford to move to someplace where I’m not terrified that my pharmacy will stop filling my hormone prescriptions.
That fucking sucks, and I’m sorry to hear all that.
You didn’t say, but I got the distinct impression you live in Texas. Hope you find some place more acceptable to live and work soon.
because if you put a fedora on me I’d look like a professional 2010s r/atheism “quote maker”),
Definitely not something to be proud of. :P
Note that there's a typo in the source article:
One woman, from the southern province of ~~Smålandeven,~~ Småland, even managed to get Social Security benefits for calling in gay.
Isn’t that the name of the ikea play place?
It is indeed.
It's a bit of a play on words, since Småland literally translates to Small land, making it apt as this is where you can leave your children at IKEA.
I looked up the etymology of the name out of interest, and it seems like it stems from it being made up of a collection of smaller self-ruling villages, located between Skåne that has often been under Danish control, and Götaland which was controlled by Götar.
Småland is also where the first IKEA was founded.
Indeed! I was planning on mentioning that as well but forgot.
IKEA is an acronym: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd - the name of the founder Ingvar Kamprad, the village of Elmtaryd (now spelled Älmtaryd) located in the parish of Agunnaryd.
Älmtaryd/Agunnaryd are located in Småland.
Magnificent. Top tier joke. 😂
I didn't mean to imply this has really happened, just the idea is old.
"Sorry, cough cough. I'm just feeling too gay to come into work today. It's a bad case - I think it might be catching!"
“I’ve been taking a lot of Echinacea but I just can’t get this cock out of my throat!”
I'm Doctor Mario, and as a certified doctor I can tell you that that's not the gay cough but rather your lungs wanting to escape the forest fire smoke on their own. No sick days btw, you have to take PTO.
Sounds like Dr Mario needs to talk to Dr Luigi.
By the way it's one of my favorite games ever for couch head to head gaming. The only person who could match me was my mom, until I played against my wife after dating her for over a year. Yeah yeah 🚩🚩🚩🚩
In other words, they be searching for new jobs.
Leopards/faces, etc. These people were fine with contributing their cogs to the evil machine that is facebook in exchange for a ridiculous salary, but now want it to be a big deal when it affects them more specifically.
Typical Divide and conquer - Stop demonizing people who work for a living - it's no different than demonizing every single American because of US foreign policy. Blame those at the top making their greedy decisions and the puppet masters behind them.
Especially when this newly crowned king destroys the ADA.
They are also moving to Texas if I read the story I saw right. I'd catch a mega case of gay to not move there or go back to work until I found a new job.
Moving to texas as a remote california tech worker is incredibly common, but it mostly comes down to not wanting to pay california taxes or real estate prices. That being said, it's important to note that the majority of west coast tech workers give fuck all about the common good or societal improvements, or they wouldn't work for facebook/google etc
That's all right-wingers, though, isn't it? Until life slaps them in the tits and all the horrible shit they champion affects them personally.
Very true, though I think in the early days of the Silicon Valley boom most tech workers were liberal democrats, whereas since tech finally became very measurably lucrative, it’s since been flooded by neocons and techno-libertarians
When your first job nets you $250k plus stock, why would you think there's an issue with capitalism?
It's not even that it attracts a certain type, it also makes that type
If one is inclined, one can tell oneself that they are a good person and they are making the company better by being there.
It also comes down to the fact that housing in Texas is largely much cheaper than in California.
Wow you think they even give fuckall? None of the tech workers I know do.
Majority of enterprise tech workers everywhere*
That's why I hate myself enough to do early stage, where you can be a human
LOL
Hahahahahaha
Fuck'em
But the pendant in me points out that the company didn't change an internal policy for what they consider mental illness, just now theyre allowing ~~hate speech~~ "free* speech"
Now I wonder if that would pass muster as a legal argument - meta doesn't necessarily believe this as our policy, but we allow people to express their hate on this platform
The pedant in me points out that you misspelled "pedant".
No, after a harrowing run-in with the Witch of the Swamp, they had a talisman embedded in their chest that forces them to warn people when they need to be both pragmatic and somber.
So it literally is the pendant in them.
The pendant in me thinks they got it perfect.
Thank you for your service.
Thanks, I appreciate it. The witch's evil pendant doesn't have a spell check. (Ironic, I think so)
I'm sure the witch has a spell book though.
(I'll show myself out now)
You're not wrong, they need a union. Which is precisely why Facebook and Twitter pack their payroll with H1-b visas.
The US has a glut of skilled tech workers right now thanks to a quarter-million layoffs last year, the argument that they can't find the labor locally is facetious. Also, every H1-b worker should be entitled to dual citizenship or full naturalization, whichever is their preference.
We need to streamline the citizenship process before we face population collapse due to capitalism. But.
That's just feeding more people into the machine
But.
It's worse where they came from so it's better to give them citizenship right?
But.
Not for at least four more years.
There is definitely mental illness happening here, just not from the LGBTQ+ members.
Oh brother...
Oh sure - and I didn't mean it to be pointing a finger at you, either. I just remembered the Sweden thing and thought it was contextual.
