Pretty shocking that Laurie McCallum, a long-time labor rights attorney, and spouse of former Gov. Scott McCallum, would vote as a Walker-appointed Commissioner on the State Industry and Labor Review Commission that it's OK to harass a gay employee at work.
The complainant in the case won because the other two Commissioners did not buy McCallum's argument, but who's to say that Walker can't find other appointees who would buy McCallum's distinctly un-Wisconsin approach?
"Traditionally, people who are harassed at work because they are gay 1 have found that they have not been granted the same kind of legal protections that their heterosexual counterparts have received. 2 This is true despite the fact that the sexual harassment of gays is motivated by homophobia, which in turn is motivated in large part by misogyny. Since misogyny in all its many manifestations is one of the things that Title VII's prohibition against sex discrimination is supposed to attack, 3 the failure of the courts to recognize that harassment against gays is a kind of sex discrimination is at best misguided and at worst very dangerous. This lack of judicial recognition is misguided because there is ample theoretical and empirical evidence to support the idea that homophobia is, in the words of author Susan Pharr, "a weapon of sexism." 4 It is dangerous because it sends a message to homophobes that they can taunt, assault, ridicule and discriminate against gays at work with relative impunity.There is a great deal of silence in the empirical data produced in the United States about the extent to which the harassment of gays at work takes place. This silence, however, is more indicative of the fact that the powers that be have refused to face this issue head on rather than the fact that the problem is minor or nonexistent. For example, in one of the most well known studies on ...
ReplyDelete"The court record showed that a group of Bowen’s co-workers repeatedly called him “fag,” “maricon” and “my little bitch,” among other slurs, over a period of years. Bowen once found a bulls-eye hunting target over which the word “gay” was written stuck to his toolbox. Someone put a sign that said, “queer” or “queen” on his locker. A sticker was put in his workplace that said, “Honk if you’re gay.”
ReplyDeleteIn a statement that was excluded as evidence at Bowen’s administrative hearing, co-worker Kathryn Corroo said, “I witnessed the sexual harassment against Chris Bowen, especially during February 2002 through May 2002 by (co-employees) Tom Meier, Rick Hafemeister, David Lepke, Jesse Manhardt and Rose McGee. … I heard Tom Meier say that Chris was not in a very good mood and that maybe it was because he (Chris) didn’t get a apiece (sic) of ass over the weekend at Pridefest, the day after the weekend of Pridefest. I heard Rick Hafemeister make comments to Chris and myself about how all nigers (sic) and queers, etc. ... (sic) should be put in a big hole and shot. And get rid of them all.”
Hmmm- Tell me what part of this isn't harassment?