People are always people, never things

I had a little incident with my co-workers today. First thing this morning, I was alone in my back office and I could hear my co-workers in the front office talking about the new Dancing with the Stars cast. I needed to go out front to get something, but as I went to the door I could hear more clearly that they were talking about Chaz Bono. They were complaining that Chaz was going to be on the show, saying that DWTS had hit a new low. Then, of course, there was the usual derogatory crap you always hear.

Now, at this point I was just going to ignore it. I was just going to take to my Twitter and complain about them as I normally would do. And that being my plan wasn't because I didn't care enough to confront them. It was because I'm the lone liberal in an office full of mostly very conservative, religious people. I hear things almost every single day that anger me, but I can't voice my opinion about everything. I need to pick and choose my battles.

So, I intended to leave it alone...but then I heard one of my co-workers say "can you imagine being on that show and having to dance with that thing?" And that's when I lost it. That's when I knew I couldn't just ignore it.

I went to the front office and went to the person that said it and said "you know what, I don't care how you feel about transgender people, but HE is a person, not a thing." Of course, immediately I hear three of the four other people there saying things like "that's you're opinion," "you can't mess with God's canvas." The woman who called Chaz a thing said something along the lines of being sorry that she offended me, but she was allowed to believe what she believes. (Incidentally, this is the same woman who said a few years ago that she wouldn't go to my favorite restaurant because "a dyke works there." After I came out to her last year she apologized for anything she ever may have said that offended me. I thought maybe that would make her think before she spoke, but I guess not.)

Then another one starts on me with the whole "we're entitled to our opinion" and "you can't get mad just because someone has an opinion different than yours", as if that's all it's about. I tried so hard to get through to them that it was the fact that they called a human being a THING that was upsetting me. I said that no matter what I thought about them, their family or friends, I'd never all them things. Although this one guy, who would be Jim Bob Duggar's bestie if he could, somehow tried to bring abortion into it, claiming that I (or all liberals, as I think he meant) call fetuses things? Or something. I don't know, it seemed like an odd thing to bring into the discussion.

Now, one of my least favorite qualities about myself is that I'm very emotional and I cry very easily. Not always about bad things. I cry at Hallmark commercials and whatever team wins the World Series. But rarely can I have a fight with someone where I don't end up crying. And, unfortunately, that happened today. I was so angry that I was shaking, and I couldn't even tell you a time when that's happened before. As I was passing the "I'm allowed to have my opinion and you can't get upset" woman repeating her same shit, I said, while crying, something along the lines of "you try being in a group that's hated for who you are and not get upset." Something to that extent. And she just stared at me and said that she never hated me. I just kept walking. She wasn't getting it.

Oh, I think that by saying that I also came out to Duggar man. I think he probably knew already, but I'm not sure. I guess he does now.

I don't like how it happened. I was confrontational, I was loud, I was not calm, I was too emotional. I would have had a better chance of getting my point across if I had handled it all differently, but I was overcome with emotion. You just cannot call a living person a THING. You just can't. That's not something that you can have differing opinions on. While I regret the way it went down, but I do not regret doing it.

Chaz, I wish you the best of luck on Dancing with the Stars. I hope that your participation enlightens some people. Oh, and tell your mom I said hey.

[Disclaimer: I DO have some co-workers that don't make my head explode on a daily basis. They were not part of this story.]