Gay Rights and Job Discrimination in the Workplace

When discussing gay rights, many people get so gripped up in talk of
gay marriage and gay adoption that they fail to recognize that in many
states gays and lesbians do not have the same basic rights as
heterosexual citizens. While most citizens assume that the government
protects all of its citizens against discriminatory practices in the
workplace, this apparently is not the case. In fact, there are many
states in which it is absolutely legal to victimize gays and lesbians
in the place of work.Depending on where you stay, it is commonly
against the law to fire or refuse to hire someone due to gender, age,
race or religion. However, most states do not have laws to protect
people with different sexual orientation. In fact, in more than half
of the states in this country, it is still legal for an employer to
fire one of their employees just on the basis that they discovered
that the employee was homosexual.Studies have shown that eighty-five
percent of Americans are not in favor of job discrimination based on
sexual preference. Furthermore, sixty-one percent are in favor of a
federal law being passed that prohibits discrimination against gays in
the workplace. And yet, only a few states have passed
anti-discrimination laws.The following states have been progressive
enough to pass laws in order to look after gays and lesbians from
discrimination in the workplace: California, Connecticut, Hawaii,
Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont,
Washington, and Wisconsin.Unfortunately, gays and lesbians who do not
work in these states may go through serious consequences if they come
out in the workplace. While many corporations and other organizations
have come out with their own policies against workplace
discrimination, there is no legal action that gays and lesbians can
take if they are the victims of discrimination.What does this mean for
gays and lesbians? It means that gays and lesbians have got to handle
the difficult decision of whether or not they can come out to their
coworkers. Although this may not seem like such a big predicament,
when you consider that many people spend eight or more hours a day in
the office, five days a week, this is a huge amount of time to spend
lying to the people around you about who you are. Also, a lot of jobs
and careers insist on people to bring their significant others and
family members to employer-sponsored events. In these cases, gays and
lesbians would be unable to bring their life-partners or adopted
children to work-related functions.A lot of people think that it is
ideal to wait for a slow change of policy over time, so that the gay
rights movement will persuade employers and other corporations to
create anti-discrimination policies on their own. However, this allows
the government to turn a blind eye to what is very obviously a
question of basic civil rights. Even if you aren't a gay rights
activist or someone who is politically active, it's imperative to
communicate with your senators and congressmen and ensure that they
know that comparable rights for gays is an important issue.