To have been AGHAST at this comment?

[FriedEggyAndSlippery]

at a group interview/skills assessment thing last week.

Girl (19ish?) tells lady her surname and lady says "oh, that's an unusual name are you related to [celebrity with same name]?"

Girl says "no, lucky eh, he's gay, wouldn't it be awful having a gay in the family? How embarrassing"

I don't know why I am posting in AIBU actually as surely nobody in their right mind would think that comment was ok?

I mean this isn't like that thread last year where someone was 'aghast' at someone stubbing out a cigarette on a tree :o anyone else remember that one?

It's quite odd to find it in a young person . there are so many older people who just drop racist comments/ metaphors without realising that they can cause offense. Or is that ageist for me to say that? I think I am sometimes prettyist/ skinnyist.
But then I heard on radio4 that women applying for jobs who put their photos on CVs are less likely to get the interview, as opposed to men of the same age who put their photos on. And the researchers thought it was because lots of the admin staff were young women!

YABU not to realise lots of people feel like this still. We tend to select friends who think thesame as us so it can be easy to think 1 view is the common one. I am gay so most of my friends are - but I know from prejudice that many people still think this way.

As a small business manager I would not have challenged her. I would have decided that there was no way she was going further in the HR process. Apart from anything else, she should at least have realised that in a recruitment, it is inappropriate to make any controversial remarks like this. But i wouldn't have challenged her as I would have been worried that she would realise why she had not gone further and challenged it - posiible legally.

Yanbu, and yes I do remember that thread about the cigarette - it was bloody hilarious. You are certainly right to be aghast at such ignorance

YABU to not realise some people think like that, but YANBU to be aghast that she was stupid enough to air that view in that situation.

Sadly she is not alone in being young and ignorant. My best friend is gay and has consistently found that that age group is the worst for intolerance. I was surprised when she told me that but I have witnessed it myself since. Maybe due to naivety, immaturity, insecurity etc?

Oh dear. However, I don't find it that suprising.

Several years ago, when the series of Big Brother with Pete who had Tourette's was on, we had several parents at the school where I worked diagnosing their children with Tourette's .

The staff were laughing about this, and someone said "Maybe they'll think their kids are gay as well because there are gay people on BB too" (Obviously this was all meant to be lightheated) and one member of staff said "I'd rather any child of mine had Tourette's than was GAY!" This was someone who worked with vulnerable children and young people...

Hee Hee, I remember the tree incident too. I seem to remember that it descended into tree anatomy based jokes rather quickely.

"YABU to not realise some people think like that, but YANBU to be aghast that she was stupid enough to air that view in that situation."

Yes I agree with that. Of course I do know that loads of people have that opinion, just like there are loads of racist people... And it all sucks. But what made me aghast is that she thought it was a reasonable thing to say especially in a semi formal situation.

Re the recruitment process some people mentioned - she was only there for a skills test as she already has a new job (this was at a college, they help find people apprenticeships etc) - so maybe she wasn't watching what she said as much as she would if it had been an interview.

Yanbu. Unfortunately there are still loads of bigotted people around.