Former Valve employee seeks $3.1M in trans. discrimination suit - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE=rndgenerator;50385459]They? "Hey 'they' could you do this translation for me?" Makes no sense[/QUOTE] You're not even trying are you? "Hey it" is also totally nonsensical. If you were being that informal you'd just shout "hey, you". He/Her/They Him/Her/Them His/Hers/Theirs He's/She's/They're You/You/You Pronouns!

now it's an argument about it and they here we've always used a single gender-neutral pronoun, yet everyone calls each other 'it' here anyways

Those damages, lol.

[QUOTE=Swilly;50385412]Valve is at fault if they covered for a supervisor.[/QUOTE] I can't say they covered for him. All he would have to say is they have a independent contractor a thousand miles away that is stirring up shit with HR about things she doesn't have a say in, and that they would like to replace that position with a person who can actually work in their office. According to the documents she already had to work from home in washington, because she couldn't socialize because of aspergers and depression, so it's not really surprising they weren't interested in having her in the full time position.

Using "it" for a trans person is just intentionally being a douche

So for allegedly calling her "it" and with her pointless complaining about company actions and god knows whatever else she's done to trigger people getting tired of it, she wants 3.3 million dollars. Boy I wish I could sue companies for this much for insulting me.

[QUOTE=Swilly;50385442]Actually I think both Cali and Washington are not at-will states.[/QUOTE] Washington is an at-will state, not that it matters because at-will employment only applies to employees, not independent contractors. Additionally, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, the only reasons an employer may not fire you is if you file a workplace rights complaint, safety complaint, or an injured worker claim. Of course, there are anti-discriminatory laws on the federal level, but obviously for a discrimination suit to work there needs to be evidence of discrimination, of which there seems to be little to none (that can be corroborated by someone other than the plaintiff.) To put it bluntly, it's not very likely anything will come of this case. Unless there is hard evidence of workplace discrimination, especially from the supervisor, and it can be proved that she was fired because she is transgender, then yeah, she can win, but that doesn't sound like that's the case. It sounds like she was fired and is coincidentally transgender, so clearly that has to be the reason why she was fired. Also, can we talk about how exorbitant $3.1M is?

[QUOTE=Limed00d;50385202]I'll admit, I made a very hasty assumption (easy to make mistakes when you've been awake for like 30 hours) [/QUOTE] you should probably go to bed instead of posting on facepunch

I don't think somebody deserves to get 3.X million dollars because they're mentally ill and got fucked out of a job.

[QUOTE=mooman1080;50385438]Are there not people who wish to be called it? Provided this actually happened for all we know it could of been a matter of trying to avoid offense by using a neutral pronoun.[/QUOTE] Uh, no, everytime I see someone who wants to be called by a gender neutral pronoun they always list "they". It is something you use for objects, not people. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Cureless;50385584]I don't think somebody deserves to get 3.X million dollars because they're mentally ill and got fucked out of a job.[/QUOTE] Diminishing the experiences of a transperson to being "fuck you, you're mentally ill." And even if they were mentally ill, shouldn't that mean we should be more careful with how we treat them? I have a mental illness, and you have to be accommodating and understanding towards people with them. There's obviously limits to this, but the general gist is you should be adjust your behavior for them to a certain extent. So basically: You're being an asshole to trans people by calling them mentally ill. You're being an asshole to mentally ill people by diminishing their value and how you should treat them. You don't treat mentally ill people as if they don't matter.

[QUOTE=Lysander32;50385599]Uh, no, everytime I see someone who wants to be called by a gender neutral pronoun they always list "they". It is something you use for objects, not people. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] Diminishing the experiences of a transperson to being "fuck you, you're mentally ill." And even if they were mentally ill, shouldn't that mean we should be more careful with how we treat them? I have a mental illness, and you have to be accommodating and understanding towards people with them. There's obviously limits to this, but the general gist is you should be adjust your behavior for them to a certain extent. So basically: You're being an asshole to trans people by calling them mentally ill. You're being an asshole to mentally ill people by diminishing their value and how you should treat them. You don't treat mentally ill people as if they don't matter.[/QUOTE] depression is a mental illness, if ive got the choice between hiring two people of equal ability where one is depressed and the other isnt, im hiring the person who isnt

[QUOTE=Steel & Iron;50385071]Both the Gamespot and Gameindustry.biz articles are making references to Polygon obtaining the lawsuit forms. Would have been nice if more than one place was able to get said paperwork. Not to call this lawsuit into question, but if Polygon is the only one with the paperwork I have some doubt about this article.[/QUOTE] I should be able to get it. Give me a half hour. Edit: Scratch that, nothing's been uploaded yet. Case number is 2:16-cv-03584 in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The plaintiff has only been identified by initials and the defendant seems to be up to 10 employees from Valve.

[QUOTE=Lysander32;50385599]Uh, no, everytime I see someone who wants to be called by a gender neutral pronoun they always list "they". It is something you use for objects, not people. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] Diminishing the experiences of a transperson to being "fuck you, you're mentally ill." And even if they were mentally ill, shouldn't that mean we should be more careful with how we treat them? I have a mental illness, and you have to be accommodating and understanding towards people with them. There's obviously limits to this, but the general gist is you should be adjust your behavior for them to a certain extent. So basically: You're being an asshole to trans people by calling them mentally ill. You're being an asshole to mentally ill people by diminishing their value and how you should treat them. You don't treat mentally ill people as if they don't matter.[/QUOTE] You don't deserve 3 million for getting your feelings hurt in a situation like this. All this does is make other big studios and companies in general start being afraid to hire trans people due to such dramas and getting sued.

[QUOTE=mr kjerr;50385792]depression is a mental illness, if ive got the choice between hiring two people of equal ability where one is depressed and the other isnt, im hiring the person who isnt[/QUOTE] This is technically illegal as you cannot discriminate based on mental illnesses. It'd be unfair to mentally ill people because otherwise they'd never get into positions for anything.

[QUOTE=bunguer;50385803]You don't deserve 3 million for getting your feelings hurt in a situation like this. All this does is make other big studios and companies in general start being afraid to hire trans people due to such dramas and getting sued.[/QUOTE] Generally the client doesn't ask for these cash amounts, Lawyers often propose an initially high price and then scale back as comprimise

Ugh, now VALVe has been dragged into all this trans bullshit

I guess everyone forgot that people commonly begin their suits at huge amounts so they can talk the other party down to a more acceptable level. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=MaximLaHaxim;50386160]Ugh, now VALVe has been dragged into all this trans bullshit[/QUOTE] Tell me what you mean by "trans bullshit"

With how Polygon plays games the entire lawsuit might have been a typo

Lawsuits may start high but 3.3m is exorbitant, no matter [b]how[/b] you spin it.

[QUOTE=MaximLaHaxim;50386160]Ugh, now VALVe has been dragged into all this trans bullshit[/QUOTE] you dont' have to be full fledged trans activist but if you don't see anything wrong with calling a trans person an "it" i dont know what to tell you

[QUOTE=Lysander32;50385826]This is technically illegal as you cannot discriminate based on mental illnesses. It'd be unfair to mentally ill people because otherwise they'd never get into positions for anything.[/QUOTE] Pump the brakes. If the illness affects their ability to perform their job, it's not protected. You can't hire a mentally disabled person to a job which demands maximum intelligence, and you can't sue the company for not hiring that person. The question is whether the firing was [i]because[/i] of this mental illness. If it was, then you have to ask the question of whether Valve retaining this employee needlessly (considering their work is no longer needed) causes undue hardship, and I don't think any court in the US would rule that a company must continue employing a disabled person when their job has become obsolete simply because of their disability. So the root of the problem is 1) whether the firing was due to the mental illness, and if so, 2) whether Valve can prove that outsourcing the job caused an undue hardship.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;50386231]Tell me what you mean by "trans bullshit"[/QUOTE] I'm guessing this endless vortex of dumb progressives stirring shit for the media to report on? Because I'm entirely on board, fuck those people and anyone who puts them in the spotlight. [editline]25th May 2016[/editline] Nothing against LGBT community though, just the idiotic part.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;50386231] Tell me what you mean by "trans bullshit"[/QUOTE] Trans drama is unbelievably caustic. A lot of the time people only notice because they're trans, otherwise no one would care. The decision may have been completely unrelated to the trans thing, and most likely was, but people will still focus on that. Same thing happens to any minority in any country I'd imagine. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] that isn't to say trans people are attention whores, and they 100% deserve to be defended and 100% should not have to deal with this kind of bullshit because of them being trans. But the drama surrounding them seems pretty explosive these days. Just look at any thread about trans people that turns into a debate on facepunch or anywhere, it gets silly. At least it isn't as bad as the civil rights protests though, it's pretty tame compared to that. I'm so glad Im' not trans. I'd have gone mad dealing with the stuff I hear them deal with. I applaud them for being able to handle themselves.

[QUOTE=KillRay;50385450]Uh, 'they' exists. 'It' is extremely demeaning.[/QUOTE] It's a shame "they" can be plural, though. We need a singular gender-neutral pronoun.

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;50385047]Welp, there goes the last sliver of faith I had in Valve if this is true. I hope not. Honestly even with Valve's current state, this seems incredibly out of character for them.[/QUOTE] no it doesnt lol time and time again people have said valve is just a ridiculous place to work full of cliques and teams that regularly try to keep people "out of the loop" if they dont like them. On top of that there's like nobody managing anything and it's just a wreck. People just work on shit they want to work on. The reason they can do that is because steam is just a money printing machine. Gabe doesn't give a shit about his employees or his company as long as it keeps printing money, that's why valve is like a high school shitfest.

[QUOTE=mr kjerr;50385792]depression is a mental illness, if ive got the choice between hiring two people of equal ability where one is depressed and the other isnt, im hiring the person who isnt[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Cureless;50385584]I don't think somebody deserves to get 3.X million dollars because they're [I]mentally ill[/I] and got fucked out of a job.[/QUOTE] yo what the fuck is this lads are we just going to gloss over the fact that these posts are blatantly and very obviously are trying to say that 1) gender dysphoria is nothing more than a mental illness and 2) that you shouldn't hire trans people that are equally skilled to their peers simply because of the fact that they're trans Like, cripes, people. I know Valve is great and all, but it seems that people in this very thread are rallying behind some terrrrriifically dumb standpoints that just seem to be wholly and totally ignored by other people. Why?

[QUOTE=Drury;50386737]I'm guessing this endless vortex of dumb progressives stirring shit for the media to report on? Because I'm entirely on board, fuck those people and anyone who puts them in the spotlight. [editline]25th May 2016[/editline] Nothing against LGBT community though, just the idiotic part.[/QUOTE] nothing against the lgbt community but fuck members of the lgbt community who try to stand up for themselves and not be illegally discriminated against

[QUOTE=N.A.N.B;50387271]yo what the fuck is this lads are we just going to gloss over the fact that these posts are blatantly and very obviously are trying to say that 1) gender dysphoria is nothing more than a mental illness and 2) that you shouldn't hire trans people that are equally skilled to their peers simply because of the fact that they're trans Like, cripes, people. I know Valve is great and all, but it seems that people in this very thread are rallying behind some terrrrriifically dumb standpoints that just seem to be wholly and totally ignored by other people. Why?[/QUOTE] I think you're ignoring a fair amount of context behind these posts.

[QUOTE=N.A.N.B;50387271]yo what the fuck is this lads are we just going to gloss over the fact that these posts are blatantly and very obviously are trying to say that 1) gender dysphoria is nothing more than a mental illness and 2) that you shouldn't hire trans people that are equally skilled to their peers simply because of the fact that they're trans Like, cripes, people. I know Valve is great and all, but it seems that people in this very thread are rallying behind some terrrrriifically dumb standpoints that just seem to be wholly and totally ignored by other people. Why?[/QUOTE] Read the thread, she didn't just have gender dysphoria, she had depression. Depression is a mental illness. That's what they were talking about. In fact the first post you quoted says that. It's like you intentionally misread what you wanted to see.

[QUOTE=Drury;50386737]I'm guessing this endless vortex of dumb progressives stirring shit for the media to report on? Because I'm entirely on board, fuck those people and anyone who puts them in the spotlight. [editline]25th May 2016[/editline] Nothing against LGBT community though, just the idiotic part.[/QUOTE] This sounds like a "The Gay Agenda" conspiracy theory if I ever saw one.