When Employment Laws Aren't Just Ducky...

The past 24 hours have seen a flurry of activity around the continued employment of one man, a Phil Robertson, who is employed by the network A&E in the state of Louisiana. Mr. Robertson, in a very high-profile venue, made personal statements that are inherently contradictory to the established statements of his employer. In relatively short order he was suspended from his position indefinitely. I have seen Internet petitions that he be suspended, countering ones that he retain his job; posts praising A&E for their decision, and posts disavowing any future relationship with the network. In the midst of all this, I have found myself somewhere between mystified and flabbergasted. This is the case of employment injustice that scandalizes America?

Mr. Robertson lives in Louisiana. A&E could walk into his office (or equivalent) any day and fire him, for any number of reasons. Louisiana is a "right to work" state; employers do not need any reason to suspend a person's employment in that state. However, in light of the fact that Mr. Robertson's statements were in regard to the LGBTQ community, let's be clear on the case of the employer's rights in regards to sexuality and gender definition in Louisiana.

An employer in Louisiana has the right to fire an individual solely because of his or her sexuality. A&E has the legal right to tell Mr. Robertson, "On account of your heterosexuality, and your inability to keep it an appropriately private matter, we are terminating your employment." A&E also has the legal right to tell Mr. Robertson, "On account of your cis-gender expression (that you define your gender with the one you were assigned at birth), we are terminating your employment." That in Louisiana, and across the nation, employers have the ability to terminate an employment based on a person's sexuality or gender definition is a true travesty of justice.

Everyone deserves gainful employment, Mr. Robertson included. Everyone deserves advocates to ensure a termination is a just and appropriate action. In the eyes of the law of Louisiana, A&E has more than sufficient legal right to suspend Mr. Robertson's employment. Advocates for Mr. Robertson's continued employment and advocates for LGBTQ equality should find equal issue with the current employment laws which are inherently unjust to all the citizens of Louisiana.

Let us pray that our country's current fascination with the debatable viability of one man's suspension of employment will bring about a deeper understanding of the systematic injustice all employees face in light of our current laws.

Benjamin Garren is a seminarian at Bexley Hall and a candidate for ordination in the Diocese of Maine.  A native of North Carolina, he did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He blogs at http://extraordonary.blogspot.com.

Living Honestly In All Of Lives

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
   and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
   and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
   will not make your voice heard on high.
             

But this is the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke.
                                    -Isaiah 58: 3b-4, 6-7

I understand the concept of a professional persona. When I work for a company there are expectations about how I carry myself because when I am on the job I am a representative of the company. If my job is high profile then I might rarely get a chance to place aside this persona. The expectations can be beyond taxing for anyone.

In some cases, however, the professional persona is not simply a more professional rendition of the person’s self but a set of half-truths, misdirections, and outright lies. In such cases the professional persona is no longer at points taxing but inherently caustic. This caustic reality is the day to day on the job reality for many members of the LGBTQ community throughout the United States.

To be clear I do not want coffee break conversations to be about the sex lives of my coworkers… I simply want to have the same freedom to talk about friends and loved ones that every one else has. I do not want to be able to come to work in the most scandalous outfit ever… I simply want to be able to dress professionally as the gender my doctor references on my health forms. I do not want my personal life to be the center of all workplace concerns… I simply want my professional persona to be a truthful expression of my personal life.

The sad reality is that so often myself and many of the LGBTQ community do not have this ability to be truthful if we want to be employed. The base reason for this is that many people cannot respond professionally to a man saying “my husband took me out to a wonderful anniversary dinner last night” or a female coworker with a baritone vocal register and so they have decided that “professional” involves neither of those realities. The personal sacrifices individuals must make to become professional, the fasting we take up from our personal lives when we enter the workplace, are not equal and are, in fact, oppressive for many.

The Senate, in passing ENDA, has decided that they will no longer allow some to feast while others fast. There is understandable concern that it will not move in the House. The question now before the House is whether they will continue to fast in a way that makes them morally comfortable by perpetuating oppression on others or will they choose a true fast, a true professionalism, that requires all members of a company to respond to each other in a professional way. The vote of each Representative will, in the end, define how professional they truly are.

If you have not already, please contact your representative in Congress and ask her or him to support support ENDA. This is a useful tool to find their contact information: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

For all of us who seek for our professional personas to be a truthful expression of our personal lives it is still a time to rejoice. It is no longer just the oppressed crying for justice but those who arbitrate justice calling for an end to oppression. Now we must pray that our work together can truly make justice ring out across the land.

-Benjamin Garren, Integrity Contributor 

Coming Out In Maine

But even the hairs on your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. -Luke 12:7

At the Maine Diocesan Convention there were many points of discussion. One side conversation had nothing to do with diocesan business but concern over the Gubernatorial race. In the past few years Maine has fought two hard campaigns around marriage equality and finally has secured legal safety for all Maine families. For myself, and many others who put literal sweat and blood into that striving for justice, the pain caused by the vitriol brought against us by opponents to equality is still quite fresh. We talked about the upcoming Gubernatorial race and wondered if it would be another campaign year filled with vitriol against the LGBTQ community.

We worried because we knew that the front runner, Mike Michaud, is gay. We worried because we know that many in politics are not concerned with what a person does with who they are but instead on manipulating the fears people have of those who are different from them. We worried for the fragile members of the LGBTQ community throughout Maine who might have to endure another electoral season where an aspect of their personhood was verbally abused while key issues about the health and safety of the state were ignored. We worried about when and how this issue, which should not be an issue, would break.

Earlier today Mike Michaud breached the issue and dispelled the mounting worries. He also marked himself as a model for leadership in the LGBTQ community above and beyond partisanship. His words and actions mark a new space we are entering into as a community. Our politics are no longer about Gay Men, or other members of our community, becoming elected officials but about people up for election being members of our community. His campaign will continue this shift in the entire nature of our political conversation.

We needed Harvey Milk to be the first out Gay Man to be elected to a position. His call to come out of our closets and make people aware that members of the LGBTQ are our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members was pivotal. Our genders and sexualities are essential aspects of our being that can neither be repressed nor be objects of societal shame. Naming our created selves and recognizing we are beloved is an essential aspect of becoming a whole and healthy individual. Front runners like Harvey Milk called all of society into this naming. This is, however, only the first step.

The next step is integrating what we have named into our whole story and expect society to recognize us for the entirety of who we are, not just our gender and sexuality. Many of our elected officials have been calling us to this for decades. The leadership of Tammy Baldwin, US Senator from Wisconsin, has been an essential part of this narrative. Mike Michaud now brings this narrative to Maine.

Mike Michaud is many things. He is a Mainer, a Franko-American, a mill worker from a mill working family, a democrat, a gay man, a brother, a son. There are tons of stereotypes and societal projections around each of these things... but there is only one individual, Mike Michaud, who is all these things in the specific way that Mike Michaud is. He is calling the electorate of Maine to consider what he has done with all that he is and not limit him to one projected stereotype or another. In so doing he calls each of us, LGBTQ or not, to consider the same about ourselves and all those around us.

Jesus tells us that God has counted all the hairs on our head. Mainer hairs, mill worker hairs, gay hairs, Franko-American hairs, whatever our hairiness might be it is a God counted hairiness. It is a hairiness that is more valuable than many sparrows. It is a hairiness for which God entered into all the oppression, hate, brokenness, and pain that the world can give out so that we may all find wholeness and integration for ourselves and our neighbors.

Mike Michaud is a leader modeling this integration and wholeness of self in his campaign. Let us pray that all our leaders, regardless of political affiliation, will come to lead us likewise.

-Benjamin Garren, Integrity Contributor