Someone got fired for their homophobic attitude and it’s really split the internet
When Canadian tweeter @kendrickmaslany shared an account of an unashamedly homophobic work colleague being dismissed, she can’t have known the reaction it would get.
some girl at my job said “I’m not scared to admit I’m homophobic”, so I told my superior and she got fired today lmao
— al (@kendrickmaslany) June 11, 2018
The post has been shared more than 65,000 times after just three days and has had nearly 3000 replies, with both severe criticism and heartfelt support well represented.
Some of the critical replies include:
Maybe you should have tried asking the person “why you feel that way?” Then try and get to the main reason they feel that way. THe fact that they were fired without probable cause shows your lack of understanding of other people’s emotions. You should feel ashamed of yourself
— heynow (@IHateBologna11) June 12, 2018
Despite what some of you may think, unless there was evidence of her being homophobic apart from her thoughts/feelings/share opinions, they cannot fire on those grounds alone. If this woman never did anything apart from have her own opinion, she can sue + I honestly hope she does
— Lvcipurr🇩🇪 (@avianchild) June 12, 2018
Unless there’s actual evidence of her being harmful, I wouldn’t be proud of having done that, like, at all. Yes, her _beliefs_ might be wrong, but what workplace fires people only based on words, and who takes pride in causing someone (anyone) to lose their job ?
— yoanlcq (@yoanlcq) June 13, 2018
But others felt the dismissal was totally justified.
Her stating outright that she is homophobic creates a hostile work environment and could even give an LGBTQ person grounds to sue the company. That is the most likely reason. And I would assume they talked to her and asked if she really said she was homophobic and then fired her.
— Chris Trent (@ctrent1229) June 13, 2018
At the end, she reported her colleague hate speech and her boss decided that the appropriate punishment was to fire her. That’s all. Her colleague boasted openly about her homophobia : you reap what you sow.
— Knowledge Pigeon (@Syrrigald) June 12, 2018
And there were important comparisons to be made.
If she had said “I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t like black people or Jews” at work she’d have been rightfully fired. This is the same thing.
— Joe Humphrey (@mrjoehumphrey) June 13, 2018
would you say the same about someone proudly proclaiming their hatred of people of color, people not from this country, people with disabilities, if that woman stood there and told you “im not afraid to admit that im racist” would this be any different?
— kiara (@regrettywap) June 12, 2018
Canadian law includes the right to free speech with “reasonable limits” but what’s reasonable? We’ll let @kendrickmaslany have the last word.
some people in my mentions are seriously saying I should be ashamed of myself when she’s the one who should. I can’t even believe you all think we should tolerate hate and discrimination in workplaces, this is literally scary
— al (@kendrickmaslany) June 12, 2018
