Thursday, December 11, 2008

Best Attendance Ever.

One of my brothers oversees a large department in a government office in a Southern state. He sent me a note regarding yesterday's "Call In Gay" Day, where some online activists had sought for gay people to "Call in gay" and take the day off, donating the time to charity. The idea was to show visibility so that they could become personalized to friends and co-workers.

"Went to my management staff and asked who called in sick today. I figured it would be a good way of knowing, for sure, who's gay."


[He was joking, btw.]

"We were at 100%. Probably first time ever. Guess no one wanted to be suspected."

That kinda tells you everything you need to know. It would be one thing if everyone had ignored the call and caused barely a ripple. It's quite another when everyone takes it as a cue to show up. I wonder how many straight people who otherwise might have had to call in sick, due to a cold or the flu or something, came to work anyway out of fear of being suspected of being gay?

Best attendance ever.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, I woke up feeling like crap and called in sick. When I realized it was "call in gay" day, I got up and went to work. I don't support this method of protest and I didn't want people to assume that was the reason I was out for the day. My Israeli boss laughed when he saw me and said, "I guess you didn't want people to think you're gay!"
Five straight people on my staff were out sick. I had no idea they were so supportive of our cause.

Chris said...

How sad people are afraid to be who they are in this day and age. So much energy put into the coverup, and most people know anyway! This protest, while having good intentions, seemed to send people deeper into the closet!!!!!!