I am a gay, black man who faces discrimination in my workplace. My boss won't stop it. What should I do?

Question

I am a gay, black man who is not afraid to hide in the closet. However, my boss is always telling me that other employees complain about me just because I'm gay and black. He says for me to "tone it down." Instead of standing by me, he gives into their dark age, religious cult, homophobic, closed-minded mentality. I was recently physically threatened by a (literally) 600 pound man, and the boss let him go with a slap on the wrist. What should I do?

Answer 1

You could always go to the EEOC. The risk here is that this action may follow you throughout your working career and make it more difficult to get a job in the future. Most employers who discover that an applicant once filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC find a legal way not to hire him. Can you blame them?

It is doubtful that you are going to be able to "live this down" at your current place of employment. You either have to grin and bear it until you become accepted for the good work you do and it is no longer a problem or you decide you can't take it anymore and seek opportunities elsewhere.

It is impossible to hide your race and race matters less today than you can imagine. However, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to divulge your sexual preferences in a place of employment. You have a right to practice gay sex with a willing adult partner if that is your choice. You do not have a right to express or impose your views on others in the workplace and be free from the reaction of others to your views. It is none of their business yet you make it so when you divulge this fact about yourself.

Next time around keep it quiet. No one is going to ask so why should you voluntarily tell.

Answer 2

Call an attorney to help you with this, it is discrimination. You are entitled to equal treatment under the law whether or not you're gay, straight, black, blonde or have green eyes. I'd also call the police and report the threat, telling them that your boss was fully aware of the threat at the time.

Good luck. There's no excuse for that kind of inbred redneck behavior in today's world.

Answer 3

OK, well if your gay and do not hide the fact that you are gay than it probably means you were gay when you got hired on. Am I correct on this assumption? If you went through the entire hiring process i.e. the interview than they probably knew you were gay. My thing is they shouldn't of hired you if they had a problem with gay's in the workplace. Im not buing the black part. Im sure there is atleast one more african american that works in the company.

Answer 4

I would contact your human resources department or go to someone higher in the company. If there is nobody higher up that you can go to contact Labor and Industries they should either be able to help you or tell you who can. Discrimination is not only illegal, it's just wrong. How can you judge someone on the color of their skin or sexual preference? You can't control either one of those things. I hope everything works out for you and kudos for not being afraid to be who you are.

Answer 5

the black part is illegal. I don't think the homophobe part is. If your company has written policies about discrimination based on sexual orientation, you can follow grievance procedure. If not....sorry, but you are SOL.

If you can document discrimination based on race, though, you can file complaint with EEOC

Answer 6

Go in person to the Dept of Labor- Wage and Hour Division to speak to a representative. Tell him/her in detail what is going on at your job. Also, start looking for another job while doing this too.

Answer 7

if you run around the workplace telling anyone and everyone every chance you get that you're gay and black and proud of it....then you need to tone it down. is this even something YOU need to be addressing at work? people don't care if you're gay or you're black unless you don't let them forget that you are. if you bring it up, apply it to every situation, try to force everyone else to have the same "open-mindedness" that you have, then you are discriminating against everyone else. why is this even something you need to let people know at work, unless you plan on having relationships (friendships or whatever) with your co-workers outside of the office? unless the matter comes up. the purpose of a job, is to go to work and do that job. your sexual orientation and race should not be a factor. it sounds like you made it one. my suggestion to you is to do that. go to work. do your job. don't discuss these things with your co-workers. don't be OVERLY flamboyant just to remind everyone that you're gay. don't hit on your employees. that could be construed as sexual harrassment. i don't have a problem with gay people. i don't feel i should have to be purposely and constantly reminded that i work with homosexual people. the heterosexual people i work with don't come up to me at work to remind me that they are straight.

Answer 8

It sounds as if your out numbered,Look after thinking about this one,Im convinced you should get work somewhere else,If thats not possible, then your going to have to take some action, against your boss.they may not like that your gay,but they can't mistreat you either.hes the one you start with,get him staightened out and the rest will follow.

Answer 9

Call the Human Resource department.

Answer 10

Try not being so happy in the work place.