Filet o-Fishy at McDonalds

[thessalian]

I really don't know what to make of this.

The basic story is this: Trans individual, Z Bellamy, age seventeen, applies online for job at McDonalds. Goes in for interview and is forced to tick a box identifying gender. Trans individual ticked 'male' - the article doesn't say whether the individual in question is MTF or FTM, so it's a little hard to say why. The assumption I'm forced to based on the alleged voicemail is that Bellamy is MTF, because the voicemail Bellamy received after this initial interview went on about how "You are not getting an interview; we do not hire faggots. You are a lying brother; how could you?"

...I'm very, very confused, and becoming less sure that this is on the level the more I think about it.

Okay, so I've never been through any of the processes involved myself, but I'm not entirely ignorant about various things someone going through the transition in gender tend to go through. There's a lot of paperwork involved to get changes made on passports, driving licences, all that sort of thing so that the gender on one's ID matches the gender with which the individual identifies. (I am aware that there are issues involving birth certificates and a big argument about whether or not those should be reissued to reflect a gender transition, but that's beside the point here.) I do get that Bellamy, at age seventeen, would have some problems getting those changes made to the relevant documents on the basis of still being a minor, but given that Bellamy is apparently living as female, I have my doubts as to whether the parents would really have that many issues with helping get the paperwork sorted out. So ... with all that taken into account, why didn't Bellamy just tick 'female' on the damn box? Bellamy identifies as female; Bellamy is apparently living as female. Why put 'male' on a form handed out during the interview process?

I'm also really dubious about this voicemail thing. I can see someone saying it to someone's face, or over the phone, sure. But anyone in a managerial capacity at a multinational corporation the likes of McDonalds would have been briefed most thoroughly on the principle of not putting that kind of discriminatory bullshit out where it can be used as proof in a lawsuit. Seriously, in this economy, with this many people looking for jobs, any manager worth their paycheque would have simply sent the usual form letter. No one gives reasons for not hiring someone, particularly not when they go against ever equal opportunity policy a company has. I ... am just very, very dubious about this. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened; I'm just saying that I have serious doubts. Plus the sound quality of that recording is poor enough that voice analysis is going to be a bitch, and the inflection was all wrong for someone angry as the wording suggests.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the manager said all of this stuff about how "we don't hire faggots" to Bellamy's face in the preliminary interview, after Bellamy was 'called out' on the subject of birth gender, and that the call was made by someone who could mimic the manager reasonably well - perhaps another employee or former employee - to strengthen the case. Or just to get some attention. If that's the case ... well, I think it's sad. And if someone really was stupid enough to leave that kind of voicemail ... well, then I still think it's sad. Just a different kind of sad. You know; pathetic-sad.

Time and detail will tell.

Comments

[thessalian.livejournal.com]

If my silence on the subject of the legal documents was indicative to you that I was unwilling to acknowledge the difficulty one might experience in doing so ... sorry. Actually, my silence was more, "I'm in an entirely different country and have never had to do this, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut", so to speak. Mostly because when we fill out application forms here, there's less of a "what gender are you?" on the forms (except for the equal opportunities policy ones, where you have the option of "I would prefer not to say"), and more of a "what is your title - Mr/Ms/Miss/Mrs/Whatever?"

Also, it's less what I think is appropriate behaviour than thinking that it's unfair that someone should have to sit down and mark a bit of paper with a gender with which they don't identify just because that's what it says on their birth certificate. Isn't that the point? If I were in that position, I would tend to think it's not anyone's business what's on my paperwork. I know it's difficult and I know there are a lot of problems I don't understand because I will probably never face them, but the crux is trying to be identified in the way in which one feels comfortable, and failing because someone is obliging this fairly arbitrary (particularly in this day and age of supposed equality in the workplace) need to pigeonhole by gender in application forms.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

It really isn't that easy in this country either. Although it's worse in some other European countries where one *can't* just use "Dr" as an escape-the-question get-out.

Filling in equal opportunities forms that ask for gender (M/F/TG/other), sexuality and religion is bad enough, although I suppose a bi FtM Christian might just boggle their brains so much that their EO systems spontaneously combust ;-)