I am sorry if this isn't the right forum to post this in, I just have a question I need answered and I don't know where else to ask. I live and work in a somewhat rural area, in North Carolina. I have been at my current job for over a year now with very little issues. Today, I overheard a conversation my boss was having with a customer from my office about the recent changes to marriage laws and he stated "I don't get why these f*ggots want to get married anyways, like, who the hell cares about what they think anyway? We don't need them here." They spoke about how the government could better spend their money on a box of .22 bullets for every straight guy rather than wasting it on "some useless marriage law." And in a later conversation they spoke about how the next time some gay thinks they're just going to strut around all happy because they can marry each other they're "just going to knock their teeth in" to which my boss laughed and responded "yeah, or just use those .22 bullets and be done with all of them." I was so upset after overhearing this conversation that I spent the last 30 minutes next to tears in the bathroom because I was overcome with anxiety and fear for being indirectly threatened with physical harm and death because of my sexuality. I still can't bring myself to go back out to the front. I want to know if it's legal for him to fire me for being gay. A friend I just spoke to told me not to just quit because then there might be nothing I could do if he does something illegal or discriminatory towards me or another person who might work there. I'd just be letting it slide. I haven't done anything to provoke any anger towards me, I always show up early and consistently leave late. I don't hide my sexuality but I by no means throw it in customers faces, most people like me as far as I know and I've never had a complaint filed against me ever. But I feel like this is going to become a bigger issues if I let these comments slide again. This isn't the first time I've heard people openly talk about harming gays, but it's never been as blatantly threatening as it was today. I feel so trapped. I feel like I might get actually hurt if I tell anyone about it. I don't know what to do...
Empty bravado. That boss could never shoot anybody and would likely lose his job if you took his comments to his superiors. What a bad man.
From a legal sense, he can't fire you for being gay, since that's discrimination. BUT he can make up any other reason he wants to "justify" it, so that doesn't mean much. If he has some kind of supervisor, you might bring what he said to their attention. Because he really shouldn't be talking about how he wants to shoot people while at work. If you have coworkers who support you, you might want to reach out to them as well. Safety in numbers. From my experience with his type of person, you should be safe as long as you don't rub the fact that you're gay in his face. They'll talk tough, and might get in your face if you catch them at the wrong time of day, but the kind of people who talk like that aren't the kinds of people who actually do those things. They're just blowing off steam in a very, very inappropriate and threatening way. You might consider going home sick today or calling in sick for the next few days and thinking over if you want to keep working there, or if you feel really legitimately scared to go back.
If that horrible person has a superior, tell that superior. If he is the highest on the chain, quit your job. You wouldn't want to be working for such a fucking bigot cunt. I can't believe they talk about shooting people for their orientation so casually. I dare them fucking try with their tiny .22, those would bounce right off my fucking hardened steel armour. Cutting them right open with my polearm while their shots bounce off me would bring me great pleasure. Cunts.
Hi 8Knight8, that sounds horrifying. I do know that it isn't illegal for him to fire you for being gay, UNLESS your company has it's own policy against it. Sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected in NC. However, I'm not sure his opinion could be seen as harassment or as him threatening you even indirectly. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not sure, but it could be seen as him just expressing a very inappropriate opinion in a very inappropriate place. I may be wrong. One thing is for sure, if you fear for your life at work, you need to report it to SOMEONE. Is there anyway for you to view your company's discrimination policy? Do you have an HR department? You could always call anonymously and report your boss (AND the person he was talking to) to HR or to his boss (assuming he has a boss). I know that you're scared, and I'm so sorry for that. I can see why you want to quit, and I don't blame you one bit, but if there are other LGBT people at your workplace, you quitting isn't going to protect them and isn't going to change anything.
If you work at a place that has an HR rep, I would talk to them about this. I agree that it may not be seen as harassment now, but it is better to report it, and that way if something else happens you can go back and say that you reported this as well.
Thanks for the responses everyone. I've spoken to a couple other businesses about working for them rather than staying where I'm at right now. I should hear back from them by the end of the week. It means a lot to have you guys here. Thank you for helping me through this.
