I’m straight, but I had work tomorrow I’d switch teams for a day to sit on my ass. Plus it makes the gay community look more prominent.

No. While I fully support the GLBT community, one of the reasons I have my job is that I don’t take frivolous days off (fake sick days for instance).

Plus, I hate the idea of the thing. You call in sick. If you say you are “calling in gay”, that basically equates homosexuality to an illness. Illnesses can be cured. To many people already think that homosexuality is an illness that can be cured. Doing something like this, while cute, simply serves to reinforce that idea in their mind. Not a good plan in my book.

Perhaps you need to read the FAQ page, empress.

:^(

If I were gay I wouldn’t call in with this economy because I would be afraid I would lose my job.

I can’t justify it. I’m out at my job, my employer doesn’t discriminate, and I live in a state where gay marriage is fully legal. I honestly don’t see what good it would do—the people who would notice I’m gone are people who already know I’m gay and who treat me equally already, both formally and informally.

I agree with @cwilbur, even though I don’t live in a gay friendly state. I think that the event is horribly misguided and was not very well developed. The event seems to be for the same people who would obey a “let’s not buy gas on this day to protest high gas prices” e-mail.

Not at all to disparage the people who have picked up the torch after bloated gay groups fucked us over. I think that every other event that’s occurred or is scheduled has been well thought-out, meaningful, and significant. This isn’t, really.

I’m sorry, singling yourself out in a way that could cause strife in your workplace seems short-sighted. It seems an insignificant way to make a point, that won’t be well taken. Being gay is not membership in a union.

I’m not gay, but I am a hardworking Mom. Maybe next week I’ll call in female, or tired, or under-appreciated? I really don’t mean to be insensitive…but it seems to me an ill-conceived event. My neighbors (a gay couple) said they wouldn’t participate because it would make them look as though the want to be singled out, when in reality, they want the opposite.

I am currently working in the Middle East right now so even if I were gay I would still have to pass…..The premise kind of reminds me of the movie “A Day Without a Mexican”....I wonder how it will fare…

@Knotmyday: It doesn’t matter if they just thought it was cute. It directly compares homosexuality to sickness and you can’t just say “well that’s not what we mean” and hope that undertone goes away. It doesn’t work like that.

@EmpressPixie: Or it could be like “blue flu” or something of the sort where it shows solidarity amongst the GLBT community and show the community as a whole just how vital they are to the local services provided. It’s all relative to how many people participate…

I disagree googly; I think it shows an air of indifference and disregard to their employers; no matter how many participate.

I am as gay-friendly as they come. I think about 80% of my friends are gay/bi men, and my father is gay. My roommates/landlords are a gay “married” couple fighting for their civil union to carry the same rights as marriage.

I read the whole site, and this thing is stupid. I’m calling in gay, oh, and by the way, you’re screwed for the day, big boss man. Take that, establishment! Blatant disregard for your employer, in this economy? Are you stupid?

If it brings attention to the issue at hand, then it served its purpose….a good percentage of the California population basically lost a right that many of us enjoy. And although I know it will lose upon appeal, I can sympathize as it was not too long ago that I would not have been able to marry my wife due to the fact that we are an interracial couple…

Plus, when only homosexual and their supporters do something that directly hurts their company like this, it’s okay to fire them. You aren’t being anti-gay, you’re helping the company.

Seriously, this kind of stunt only fuels the wrong fires.

Googly, I am all for supporting and bringing attention to the issue at hand. I just think this is the wrong way to do so.

Wow. I can’t believe all the negativity. On May Day a few years ago, in LA, soo many Latinos called in brown. Restaurants closed, businesses slowed, and it was all to bring attention to how vital the immigrant/Latino populationis to our city. This “calling in gay” day is meant to do the same. We contribute to the economy, but don’t have equal rights. Not cool.

Having said all that, I’m not calling in. I don’t protest, I don’t march, and I certainly do not chant.

I think the idea is fine—it’s like going on strike. One of the reasons going on strike can be effective is because it demonstrates the value of the workers in question—replacing all of them at once is likely to be very difficult, and it’s far easier to negotiate. If 10% of your company calls in sick on Wednesday, you can’t really fire all of them without hurting yourself significantly more than you hurt them.

And if you fire even one person on the “call in sick if you’re gay” day, then you still run the risk of having a lawsuit—which you’re likely to lose, at least in states where sexual orientation is legally protected, unless you have a written policy that makes calling in sick when you’re not really sick a firing-level offense and you can show that you’ve consistently enforced that policy in the past. Otherwise, firing someone who called in sick on “call in gay day” while not firing someone who called in sick on “I want to work on my tan” day is discriminatory.

The real problem with this idea is that, unlike the Latino community calling in brown, it’s likely to be most necessary and most effective in the thirty-odd states where you can legally fire someone for being gay. It is also likely to drive the point home in a state like California, where there are laws against employment discrimination, but the recent Proposition 8 vote has it fresh in people’s minds. I don’t think it’s likely to accomplish much in Massachusetts, though, where there already is gay marriage and strong legal precedent and support for eliminating other forms of discrimination.

<- wants to use her “gay for a day” pass, but suspects it won’t happen….

But I’ll be really lazy and unproductive in support of this worthy cause :D

wild; you are my role model.

@tiny: For the record, I think anything other than illness, emergency, or death are rarely acceptable reasons to not go to work. My negativity comes from being poor and having to work insane overtime just to get by, thus having an excellent work ethic. This, no matter how worthy the cause, is a poor work ethic. Now, if one were to schedule a personal day ahead of time, great! Leaving your job hanging last minute? Crap. Don’t care if you’re gay, or brown, purple, or Michael Jackson. Still crap.

Why do I say this? I’ve been the victim of poor-work-ethic-coworkers too many times, where I’ve been the only one left holding the bag. I can’t even count on just my two hands the number of times it’s happened since I came to this department in March. You have a job to do. Get your ass to work and do it.

poof I just don’t agree. You are letting yourself be taken advatage of, you shouldn’t blame others.

@Tiny: When people don’t show up for work, and I am the only person there, the work still has to get done. It’s not about being taken advantage of. I work in a huge corporation; people can’t be fired for this sort of thing on the spot. So if the work’s got to be done, and I’m the only one left standing, I have to do it. I can’t not do it because someone else was irresponsible.

@poofandmook: in the corporate world, having a worse work ethic than your coworkers gets you fired (or, occasionally, promoted to management); having a better work ethic than your coworkers gets you burnt out. Unless you’re actually being noticed when you get the work done when nobody else is there, then there’s little point in stressing out over it.

@cwilbur: I get noticed every day except the days I get left high and dry. I’m a dispatcher, and most of the 30 drivers I handle love me, and say so. Plus, my best friend is a supervisor… so I basically have one of the bosses in my back pocket, which helps a great deal.

I don’t stress about it so much anymore now that I’m a dispatcher. When I was a call taker, forget it… I was having nervous breakdowns every other day because I was getting screwed by my “peers”. So while I’m not stressing about it, I still stand by my statement that no matter how worthy the cause, you’re not proving anything on behalf of that cause by making yourself look bad/irresponsible at work.

@tiny: “it was all to bring attention to how vital the immigrant/Latino populationis to our city. This “calling in gay” day is meant to do the same.”

The calling in brown day was relevant to the situation. If the US was to deport, bear down, or make it more difficult to receive citizenship for illegal immigrants the US would be affected by the loss of their jobs. It was a maneuver to prove that the US needs these immigrants because they are such a massive workforce.

Calling in “gay” doesn’t prove any point other than homosexuals are a large part of the workforce as well. The government isn’t in the business of deporting homosexuals so I feel the movement is somewhat imprudent, especially in a recession where many business’s are looking to lay people off. If they feel you are trying to further an agenda, not related to your career which in the end could hurt their company or impair your performance I doubt they would think twice before laying you off.

I understand the meaning behind it, to prove that homosexuals are important to the US and they deserve the same rights that everyone else receives, but like tonedef said it is misguided in a recessive economy and could prove to be disastrous for some people.