I was going to make a thread about this, but this space seems more appropriate. A couple of my coworkers at my job were making fun of a male who works in our building who works in a different department. He's black and "flamboyantly gay". They were making comments about how he twitches, etc., and these are people who I talk to on a regular basis who were making these comments.
He clearly makes them uncomfortable. Now I will admit that the fact that he looks like a slimmer version of Biggie Smalls walking around with lip gloss on may have something to do with it. He's so flamboyant that I immediately knew who they were talking about once they began speaking. But their comments were homophobic nonetheless. I don't think they realized it, because they were totally find trying to include me in the conversation. I was uncomfortable. Like, what makes him any different than me? Yes I may not walk around with lip glass, makeup and mess on, but I still don't consider myself the ideal "masculine" man by any standard.
My place of work has a STRICT inclusion/anti-discrimination policy. If anyone in HR were to hear their comments, they'd be fired on the spot. People don't realize when they are exuding homophobia. And I guarantee if I would have said something to them, they would have
denied it up and down. "Oh! How can I be homophobic! We're cool! " Blah blah blah .
Not only could their comments be taken as homophobic, but they could also easily fall under the category of workplace bullying.
