Foot Locker = Foot in Mouth

I mention this story only because I’ve followed it from beginning to end. The older I get the more I seem to be less and less tolerant of companies, that should know better, treating their gay employees like dirt. The resolution of this particular story is heartwarming even if the amount awarded is not published yet. In a nutshell…

Kevin Dunbar, a 26yo male, working at Foot Locker was subjected to cruel taunts and tortures on a daily basis. After begging to be transfered to a new store ….where his new store manager refused to shake his hand and said, “I heard about your shit, I don’t want your faggot ass in my store.” But wait! theres more! “Foot Locker could have addressed this problem, as it clearly promises employees in its policies, but instead chose to ignore it and make it worse. Our client followed the rules to address the discrimination, and all it got him was a pink slip,” said Nevins. In the lawsuit, Lambda Legal argues that Foot Locker, Inc., breached its contract with Dunbar by violating the company’s own anti-harassment, anti-discrimination and open-door policies that are promised in the employee handbook. Three customers who witnessed three separate incidents of antigay harassment have sworn affidavits on Dunbar’s behalf.

This is my favorite part! Even a “christian” felt so badly for him she made a complaint! One customer approached Dunbar and gave him her name and phone number “because as a Christian woman I felt this was wrong, and the Lord told me to help and heal because the hurt, pain and embarrassment I saw on Mr. Dunbar’s face was intense.” On another occasion, a customer was shopping with her four children and heard Dunbar’s coworkers calling him “punk ass” and “faggot.” After one particularly harsh round of name-calling, a customer was concerned for Dunbar’s safety when she heard a coworker threaten, “I will beat his punk ass!” A spokesperson for the company refused comment on the suit.

And the most galling part, is that FL gave Kevin, the innocent victim, a PINK SLIP! He had to sue in order to get any sort of justice. Regardless of the outcome, I will never shop at FL again. I have a choice where I spend my money and it sure as hell isn’t where someone is allowed to be humiliated just because he was born gay!

Is It Wrong to Laugh?

Ok, folks, this is an urban legend. I copied it from another blog I’m involved in and it was just so strange. Below is an accounting of a “mistaken rapture”. I have seen this before but had forgotten about it.

ARKANSAS CITY (EAP) — A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car’s sunroof during an incident best described as a “mistaken rapture” by dozens of eye-witnesses. Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile-up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman, who was apparently convinced the rapture was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she believed was Jesus. “She started screaming ‘He’s back! He’s back!’ and climbed out through the sunroof and jumped off the roof of the car,” said Everet Williams, husband of 28-year-old Georgann Williams who was pronounced dead at the scene. “I was slowing down but she wouldn’t wait till I stopped,” Williams said. She thought the rapture was happening and was convinced that Jesus was gonna lift her up into the sky,” he went on to say. “This is the strangest thing I’ve seen since I’ve been on the force,” said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene Madison questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was on his way to a toga costume party, when the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released twelve blow-up sex dolls filled with helium, which then floated up into the sky. Ernie Jenkins, 32, of Fort Smith, who’s been told by several of his friends that he looks like Jesus, pulled over and lifted his arms into the air in frustration and said “Come back,” just as the Williams’ car passed him, and Mrs. Williams was sure that it was Jesus lifting people up into heaven as they drove by him. “I think my wife loved Jesus more than she loved me,” the widower said when asked why his wife would do such a thing. When asked for comments about the twelve sex dolls, Jenkins replied, “This is all just too weird for me. I never expected anything like this to happen.”

I just couldn’t help posting it. Especially, after my long winded rant yesterday. *muffled giggle* So my question, if it were true, is it wrong to laugh?

Ignunce Rears It’s Ugly Head

This is an old subject for me. However, it has just dawned on me, I’ve never really mentioned it on any of my rants here. I take the issue of religion and being gay to heart. I spent a large chunk of my adolescent life searching for a balance between what I thought were the teachings of the Almighty and my own conscience.

Today’s nonsense is courtesy of an interesting blog from Dunner. Dunner often offers some great insights into every day occurrences which is probably why I read his blog daily. But I digress, the topic stems from an old article posted at the LaCrosse Tribune in Wisconsin. Specifically, regarding a Ms. Peaslee’s ongoing rants about the do’s and don’ts of living a godly christian life. Or more specifically, Ms. Peaslees complete fascination with “homosexuals”. (At this point, I’d like to refer Ms. Peaslee to my good friend Betty Bowers, whom I’m told has a much more intimate connection to Jesus.)

I digress, the topic stems from an article posted by Ms. Peaslee condemning homosexuals. Now take into account, the articles are a bit old and apparently Ms. Peaslee doesn’t post many opinions these days. Anyway, after reading thru Ms. Peaslee’s ongoing rants a picture started to unfold. A picture of a lonely bitter shell of a woman, trapped by her empty and futile life, trying desperately to regain some modicum of control by lashing out at anything she fears or doesn’t understand. Ms. Peaslee’s undying conviction and righteousness is reminiscent of my own childhood. Not because I had any such convictions mind you. No, I was constantly surrounded by those claiming to be the mighty servants of the Almighty. Servants who, in reality, were tiny frail human beings desperately trying to shake their own feelings of inadequacy by attacking anyone who threatened to upset their delicate convictions. Of course, that includes gays/lesbians as well. Ya know, I’m amazed I survived childhood w/any sort of sanity left about me. I digress again, apologies. It’s really quite easy to turn the tables against such simpletons. My favorite, and most annoying choice is by using the very item that they hold most dear, the bible. When Jesus came, he told his followers, “the old law is dead to you [meaning the old testament], your new covenant is with me”. (For those of you not up on the bible. The Old Testament is where most of the supposed “condemnations” against gays are found.) Last time I checked scripture, Jesus taught love, acceptance, and tolerance of all. It always amazes me the power such a simple statement can have over the religious not-so-right. The other option tends to be a little more complex. You have to purchase or at least find an original translation of the bible. Keep in mind the bible was originally written in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Once you start reviewing these so called “gay scriptures”, you find that very few actually refer to gays/lesbians and fewer still offer any sort of condemnation or “eternal fire” for the “abominations”. To this day, it still mystifies me how such a simple truth is so well hidden from the masses. And what annoys me, is that many of the religious “powers that be” have to know what they are teaching is a fallacy.

Ok, I’ve beat this holy horse to death. I’ve off my rocker now.

Job Promo – II

Ok, well the interview went fine. Of course, you always think of a better answers afterwards. I am confident I did fine nonetheless. I was surprised to see how many people applied. On the way out, I ran into a guy who used to be a dispatcher for us and left a few years back. Guess his new gig isn’t working out so well.

The process is simple. If you meet the eligibility requirements you are added to “the list.” Your score off the oral and written interview determines how high on the list you place. Once you are placed on the list, they just work their way down as positions become available. Pretty simple huh? Right now I think there are at least 2 possibly 4 positions available.

Job Promo

Well, I’m on a little earlier than normal today. I have an interview for a supervisor’s position at work. I’m always bitching about how crappy the sup.’s are so nows my chance to change that. Basically, if you are eligible, you take a test, go thru an interview process and then you are put on a list. When a position opens up, its offered based on how well you scored on the list.

Anyway, wish me luck!

Relapse!

Not sure really what else to call it. And I was doing so well too….

I was completely overcome by a sense of loneliness tonight at dinner. Kind of odd for me as I’ve always been of the mindset; being alone does not necessarily mean being lonely. That said, this was distinctly loneliness. Loneliness in its raw and ugly power. I was mid way thru dinner at my favorite sushi joint in the Castro when it hit me. (The ex and I used to go there a lot.) I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t eaten there since the breakup, the holidays, or a little of both. I do know I was so overcome I had to go to the bathroom to calm myself. I was halfway into tears when the anger hit me. . .

Anger that I’ve let someone put me in the position of feeling this way. Anger that I’m making a fool of myself in public. Anger that I felt like a complete basket case if only for a few minutes. Anger that I am still capable of missing him after what he did to me. And yes anger over being angry.

And after anger came reason and sanity once again prevailed. I’m able to laugh now as I’ve managed to pulled myself together. My head knows its over. I just wish I could get my heart to fall in line. Maybe I should just admit to myself that I still have unresolved feelings about the breakup. Before I met the ex, I had reached a point in my life where I felt complete and whole. I wanted a partner but it had become a possible future instead of a goal in life. Fast forward to now, I’m having a hard time getting back to that place in my head. Damn it! Why can’t I be like Data from Star Trek. Just snap my emotions on/off on a whim? Why? Because, thats what its like to be human I guess. As sad as I get sometimes, I’m still able to remember that. And I think sometimes, thats the only thought that keeps me going. Hope springs eternal. . . .

IE Error – Fixed!

It drove me nuts until I fixed it, so I did. The blog should now display correctly in Internet Explorer. I guess there were some errors in nesting tags from the original template. (Meaning, I didn’t create the errors by adding my stuff to it, they were already there) While other browsers are apparently much more forgiving, IE is not. It has to be PERFECT. In the process, I learned a whole lot about style sheets. So not a bad trade off. I also brought back the navbar. I figure since blogger is letting me use this site for free, its the least I can do. *G*

The really good news is I now know enough about CSS (cascading style sheets) to do this on my own. I’ve already copied the flash files over to my own domain and updated the links. This way if the old site goes down or does away w/the template, I’m not screwed on my design. I also need to finish updating the old homepage. I still have bleed over links left in from the blog. I rarely give it out so its not priority #1 per say.

I guess you can say I’m a true geek. I kept waking up last night w/ideas on possible errors in the code. I literally had to force myself to sleep twice in the night. How scary is that? So long story cut short, I fixed the damn thing. Smitty will be so happy!

IE Display Faults

Ok, I don’t use Internet Explorer but I just discovered today at work that my blog is displaying incorrectly when using IE. I thought it might be the defaults on the text settings but that doesn’t work either. The odd part is that if I open the template and preview it, it shows fine. Yet when I reload the page it still shows a huge gap at the top of the page. Annoying to say the least.

Well, since I don’t use IE, I really don’t plan to spend a lot of effort trying to fix it. Apologies, to anyone in advance if it displays weird on your screens.

5 Yrs Ago This Would Not Have Happened

Growing up in Texas, I have a perspective on this story. The police, troopers, etc there have long had a history of animosity toward gays. I could tell you several stories about gay domestic violence gone horribly wrong after police stood by and did nothing. This story tickled my funny bone. If Texas can wake up and smell the coffee, there is hope for the rest of America.

A Texas State Trooper, California’s verion of CHP, decided to tell 2 gay guys kissing at the Capitol that what they were doing was illegal. The results were surprising but heartwarming.