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I’m part of the Hop Against Homophobia that so many M/M authors are doing today. I took a look at the official website for International Day Against Homophobia, though, and discovered their theme for 2012 is “Sexual diversity in the workplace. It pays off!” Since I believe discrimination is part of the reason I lost my job last year and could be why I’m still unemployed, I wanted to talk about that.

In the pamphlet about “Sexual diversity in the workplace. It pays off!” they define homophobia like this:

Like racism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism, homophobia is a type of discrimination. It is a negative attitude, a negative feeling, an aversion to homosexual people or homosexuality in general. Homophobia manifests itself as hate, disdain, hostility and rejection of people thought to be homosexual and anything related to them, especially people whose appearance and behaviour do not fit the stereotypes of masculinity or femininity.

A former coworker was the one person in the office I thought I could trust with details when my first story was accepted for publication in March of 2010. In April, I discovered that she’d told everyone else in the office despite me asking her not to because another of our coworkers and our boss always struck me as being the religiously-fueled type of homophobes.

By June, I was demoted to being a part-time employee with the IT portion of my job outsourced to a tech support company and made to report to that homophobic coworker. They told me it was because they couldn’t afford to keep me full-time due to the economy. Since all of us had already had no raises in 2 years, pay cuts that year, and our health benefits threatened by the board, I believed them. I made do and started looking for another job in an Ohio economy that had none.

In August, my first book was published and two of my coworkers — the one who’d outed me and another — asked to read it. Not making the connection or maybe just being naively trusting, I gave them copies. In November, my second book was published, and they asked to read that one too. They told me they liked both of them, and I believed them and enjoyed the discussions we had about the books.

By December, when I didn’t quit on my own, I was fired for failure to do my job, but told I could list it as being downsized to collect unemployment and not look bad during future interviews. I was given 6 days to sign the termination letter or I would lose my “severance package” which was actually my 3 weeks of vacation time and my final paycheck. I didn’t fight them, but it was mostly because I was in shock.

I had worked for that 8-person, non-profit company for 10 years. I believed my homophobic, misogynistic, racist boss when he said we were all a family and important to him. I have not heard from any of my coworkers in over a year and, considering they all knew I was being fired before I did, I’m pretty sure I know why they’ve kept their distance and maintained their silence: Jobs are still scarse here. I don’t have any proof, of course, so I can’t sue them. It is still my belief, though, that I was terminated out of homophobia because no one ever had a discussion with me about poor performance or unmet expectations in those 10 years, including the 6 months I worked part-time.

Since I now list my publishers on my resume, I have a feeling homophobia has been influencing potential employers too. I won’t remove my writing successes from my resume because I am proud of my accomplishments and I honestly don’t want to work for someone who would read ManLoveRomance Press and make assumptions about me without ever asking me a single question. Just like my old boss did.

So here I am, a straight woman in favor of human rights for everyone regardless of their gender identification or sexual orientation, and I’m a victim of homophobia. There are others like me out there, authors persecuted for what we write and what we believe is right, and yet we’re all still publishing our LGBT romance stories. I may never again tell a coworker my pen name, but I won’t be quiet in the face of homophobia.

And I hope you won’t either.

In keeping with the requirements of Hop Against Homophobia, I’m offering one commenter their choice of my books, either one that’s already published or one that’s coming soon (with the exception of the paperback and those listed as works-in-progress). Just leave a comment and make sure to include your email address when you fill in the credentials (you don’t have to put it in the comment itself).

UPDATE because I should’ve been more specific: I’ll choose someone at random and alert the winner via email on MONDAY, MAY 21, as well as list their name (linked to their website, if included) in a follow-up post that day.