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Ten ways to reveal your lover: coming out the easy way

Good grief 'anonymous', get a sense of humour! As with other discriminated communities, it is only the relevant community which can reclaim some of the derogatory terms used about it (I think you'll find the African-American community has done this very effectively, so there is precedent) Actually, I'd disagree that the bulk of the content of the article is 'obsolete', far from it. Despite the law being composed of very highly-educated and intelligent people, tolerance - understanding would be a bridge too far - is still in woefully short supply. What is in great supply is hypocrisy, assumption and outright discrimination, the latter not necessarily writ large but expressed in hundreds of little ways, every day: micro-inequities, in the new discrimination parlance. All too often lawyers defer to client 'problems' with gay lawyers to mask their own prejudice, because after all the client is always right. How many refused promotions, covert sackings and generally discriminatory conduct can be put down to this, I wonder? (I have heard of several examples myself). Three cheers for clients who force law firms to spell out how they are approaching the issue of diversity. Law schools, new recruits and the legal press need to do more to name, shame and boycott those firms continuing such heinous, inhuman treatment of people, and gay men and women need to come out themselves in order to defeat ignorance, because if we don't, who will?

5-Jan-2010

3:57 pm