A programmer is asking the British government to apologize for prosecuting mathematician Alan Turing for homosexuality, and while I feel that that gesture is about as useful as performing CPR after the person has already drowned, I do understand the symbolic power of such a gesture. Better late than never, I suppose.
But what I was more interested in was the point that the writer raised about geeks and gays, seeing as I'm part of both groups. Has society really changed in the way it views both groups? Or are they still pretty much the same outcasts that they were before?
I can't claim to be an expert on the matter, but it is striking how a lot of Filipinos are really only comfortable with gays if they performed their "assigned" tasks: Entertainment reporter, hairdresser, call center agent. Try to meander out of these clearly defined roles and you find yourself having a harder time than the heterosexuals you share your field with.
I've been insulated from any discrimination so far, seeing as I work in a gay-friendly industry and am pretty much in a bubble, but I am extremely curious as to how it is like to work for an industry that isn't "gay". Do any of you guys have any experiences -- good or bad -- that you'd like to share?
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I think a gay guy in Sales (and I mean FMCG, consumer goods, old-school kind of Sales)would get into a bit of trouble. I know lots of Sales guys who are very...traditional.
ReplyDelete@Daene: But is it a generational thing, though? How old are the people in Sales? Some studies made in California during the heat of the Proposition 8 campaign pointed to the fact that most of the homophobia nowadays stems from the gap between generations.
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