Way back in the 20th century, when I was in grad school and needed to earn some money to do my thesis research, I applied for a job as an archaeologist in Wyoming. The man who hired me subsequently heard that I was gay and that another woman he hired was a lesbian, so we received a second letter telling us we were not hired after all. My friend Pat worked for this company, and he went to this guy's boss and said, "Homer is going to sue the company for discrimination" (he did this without telling me, he was a troublemaker!) and the bigot got his ass fired and I got a nice letter telling me that a mistake had been made, and that I was re-hired. I went to work for them and ended up running portions of the project because I am a good archaeologist. Some of the people beneath me at that time grumbled because a fag was in charge. They were also upset that I was physically stronger than them, since in their minds a gay guy had to be a wimp. Yeah, right.
Lately, it seems to be very acceptable for bigots to spout off about what jobs LGBT people should and should not be allowed to do. A sample:
Senator John McCain doesn't think homosexuals should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
Senator Jim DeMint doesn't want gays and lesbians to be teachers.
Peter LaBarbera thinks that homosexuals should be banned from being TSA agents at airports because they might get all pervy on people.
Maggie Gallagher says that homosexuals should not be allowed to be judges.
The Pope and other leading Catholics say that gay men cannot be priests.
If these people had their ways, I guess all of us homos would be hair dressers, reality show judges, and interior decorators.
The LGBT people I know include:
- antique sales
- archaeologist
- architect
- art gallery
- artist
- bartender
- car sales
- carpenter
- chemist
- choir director
- dental assistant
- doctor
- engineer
- flight attendant
- hair dresser
- health department
- janitorial
- landscaper
- lawyer
- librarian
- linguist
- loan officer
- massage therapist
- medical research
- mortgage broker
- porn actor
- professor
- public relations
- respiratory therapist
- scientist
- secretary
- social worker
- teacher
- website designer
As far as I know, all of these people do their job in a professional manner, and the straight folks they come into contact with are left unaffected by their interactions.