Thought it was time to make an updated Walmart story time since the last one I wrote was years old and the Walmart twitter account replied to me before I was even done screenshotting.
I worked for Walmart in 2008. I was prohibited to use the men’s bathroom. I passed as male at the time so women would get upset if they saw me in the women’s room, and I had Walmart security called on me for trying to use the women’s bathroom, too. There was no bathroom I could safely use.
I was told I couldn’t put my chosen name on my name tag, even though cis employees could. That decision was reversed after their lawyers apparently told them they couldn’t do that.
A gay employee had,just prior to my hiring, been harassed and fired for being HIV+.
This isn’t even getting into anything they did that wasn’t LGBTQ related.
I have rarely in many years of employment encountered a more hateful anti- LGBTQ environment than Walmart and they should be ashamed and they should have to pay actual money to past and present LGBTQ employees.
In the 4 different stores and ~3 years I worked at, I was sexually harassed, misgendered and deadnamed, discriminated against repeatedly, and even HR did it. Ethics hotline barely even gave wrist slaps. I once had to deal with a manager who would report my spouse and if we even held hands off the clock with our vests off, anywhere in the store. He repeatedly referred to it as indecent. Hand holding.
No other company has been so blatantly and horribly disrespectful and cruel to me as a queer person.
Anonymous sent: Wait, uhm, this is no hate just confusion- so.. Its ok when people take canonically straight characters and make them bi in the intent with shipping them with the same gender.. But not when they make lesbian characters bi..? Because I heard this a lot..
// - Hey, thanks for the question. Yes, it is absolutely okay to make canon straight/cis characters LGBT+ because straight/cis people don’t face discrimination like LGBT+ people do. There’s literally no harm in it.
Let me put it for you this way. You probably can’t name a single form of media that doesn’t have a straight/cis character in it (or ‘cishet’ which is the term I’ll use from now on bc it makes it quicker to type). Cishets have ALWAYS been represented in media & never discriminated against (not counting POC but that’s another discussion better suited for someone else bc I am white). Meanwhile, LGBT+ people have had to CONSTANTLY fight for representation in media & even basic human rights.
So to take a canon LGBT+ character & make them straight/cis (don’t get me started on ‘genderbending’) is perpetuating erasure & homophobia/transphobia. There IS harm in this, regardless of the intent.
It’s the exact same thing with taking a canon lesbian & making them attracted to men, or taking a canon bi person & making them lesbian/gay, or taking a canon gay man & making them attracted to women. It’s a matter of respect - as a community, we should support each other, not erase the representation we do get. Allies should understand this too.
I hope this helped explain things. My inbox is open if you have other questions, I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.
