9 Responses to "Have You Been Denied a Writing Gig Because of Your THOUGHTS on Sexual Orientation?"

1. 

   Russ Klettke  April 23, 2022 at 11:03 am

   The repeated use of the term “sexual preference” in this conversation is one indicator why a cis-gendered heterosexual might not be qualified for the assignments. Anyone who has lived the experience – which included for many of us going through significant periods of development in a state of quiet desperation, knowing the social and occupational consequences of being honest with ourselves and others – knows that sexual orientation is not a matter of choice. Yet that’s what the word “preference” implies; you are “words” people, you should know that. We choose menu items, clothing styles, brands, and partners. We do not choose that which defines us in ways that science has yet to identify.

   By holding onto the notion that sexual attraction is a matter of choice, it enables religious organizations, family, friends, and governments to assert that we could change. Let me be clear: except for people who are truly bisexual, sexual orientation (remember that word, ORIENTATION) is not a choice. The high suicide rate of LGBTQ teens and adults should be your first clue as to how that happens.

   Something to consider: a wonderful organization that I support in Chicago is called The Night Ministry. The mission is to reduce houselessness (i.e., homelessness), particularly with teens. They arrive at the Greyhound station with barely enough cash to get through a week. But for The Night Ministry they fall into any means possible of surviving, often developing a criminal record to add to their woes. Important data point: a solid 40 percent of those houseless teens are LGBTQ. Think about that. Consider what kind of people throw away their children, and why. My guess is those kids would prefer a stable home, at least until they could finish school. But because the people who should provide that for them think it’s a simple “lifestyle” choice, they aren’t due that.

   That’s the power of words, my colleagues. As writing professionals we are tasked with providing clarity and accuracy in communications. If we lack a fundamental understanding of a topic and audience – particularly audiences that have dealt with oppression – we simply won’t be good at it and shouldn’t expect to get the assignment.

2. Pingback: WritersWeekly Will NOT Be Silenced! – by Brian Whiddon, Managing Editor | WritersWeekly.com

3. 

   By Angela Hoy - Publisher of WritersWeekly.com  April 18, 2022 at 8:02 pm

   COMMENT SUBMITTED BY EMAIL:

   Yes. I am a heterosexual white male which makes it impossible to succeed in today’s publishing climate.

   J.B.

4. 

   Antaeus Balevre  April 16, 2022 at 11:47 am

   Hi, Angela.
   My feelings about publishers giving marginalized individuals and people with diverse gender or sexual preferences priority were presented in my article “Are Non-marginalized Writers Being Marginalized?”
   No one has come forward with definitive proof that people in the modern writing community have been discriminated against because of their ethnicity or sexual orientation. It is all supposition. An attempt by some publishers to be “Woke.”
   As I said in the article, unless you tell them, a publisher has no way of knowing anything about you. Because most submissions are “blind” in that respect, many publishers are now asking that you include that information and your preferred pronoun in your bio.
   I can only speak for myself, but I have written stories where the protagonist has been black, white, Hispanic, Italian, American Indian, Nubian, and an alien from outer space. In addition, my characters have been sexually diverse, religious, pagan, witches, murderers, sociopaths, and psychopaths. It’s called creative writing.
   Before this woke movement, all of my meriting stories were published. But now, if I submit a story about someone who is “sexually diverse” or “marginalized,” the publisher wants to know if I am a member of that community before they publish it.
   For example, a few months ago, I submitted a fictional short story titled “The Talking Frog” to a publisher. The protagonist in my story is gay. The guidelines said they were open to submissions from all individuals regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation. However, they did give preference to marginalized individuals. The only requirements were that the story had to be fictional and feature a protagonist who identified as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
   The publisher wrote back and said they were interested and would I mind if they added the fact that I was a member of the LGBTQIA+ community to my bio. I responded by saying I was a heterosexual person and not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. The following email I received said they were not going to publish the story and severely chastised me for attempting to deny a marginalized person a spot in their publication.
   To your point, excluding someone’s article or story based on sexual preference or ethnicity is discrimination. Likewise, including an article or story only because someone has a particular ethnicity or sexual preference is also discrimination.
   Publication of an article, book, or story should be judged on its merits, not on the ethnicity or sexual preference of the person who wrote it. That holds whether it is a biography, an autobiography, a memoir, fiction, nonfiction, or anything else.

5. 

   Elizabeth Davis  April 16, 2022 at 3:03 am

   I personally would never be able to sue on those grounds. As soon as anyone asked me that question I would have apologized. “I’m sorry, I must have sent this to the wrong address. I only work for reputable people/companies.” Then I would have ignored all future communications (if any) from them and noted in my files not to submit/apply to them again.

6. 

   Alicia Kelso  April 15, 2022 at 8:17 pm

   Add another category; Those of us single/divorced mothers who are in fact impact awarded patriotic Americans who have learned a foreign language and work at an American embassy are expected to provide “companionship” to other unmarried employees (military security guards, fellow office workers) but not non-Americans working in the embassy or local nationals in the country our embassy is in.

7. 

   Nicole Larson  April 15, 2022 at 8:17 pm

   Angela, it could also be that the publisher was trying to weed out LGBTQ people rather than straights.

   Either way, it’s discriminatory.

8. 

   Kate  April 15, 2022 at 8:04 pm

   As a business owner, it’s illegal for me to even ask someone’s relationship status or sexual orientation in a job interview — not that I ever would. Unless someone is applying for a job in which one’s sexual preferences are important to perform the job (and I can think of only one industry where that would matter…), it should not even come up. It doesn’t matter what the company’s ideology is, and you could cover work style preferences in an interview to determine if it’s a good fit. But really people just need to focus on the skills and experience required and nothing more.

9. 

   Greg  April 15, 2022 at 6:56 pm

   You wrote, “To push it further, and claim that it’s not you, but your beliefs, is ridiculous and I’m certain that wouldn’t stand up in court.”
   Why not? Many religious schools have explicit statements of belief built into their job descriptions, including some that are irrelevant to the position.

   I’ve been denied teaching positions because I was not the right kind of Christian.