something's not right with a guy at work who declares himself straight in work email signature

[Mumof4worried]

There's a particularly unpleasant guy at work, senior manager and acts like he is above everyone. I've annoyed him as I treat him like everyone else and don't just drop everything to help him when he asks.

Anyway he has an email signature that says "I'm a straight ally and support LGBT rights" and it has a little rainbow button.

Aibu to think that's not quite right? Who cares about who he fucks? And its 2015 not 1960 he's just stating the normal position of people.

Does anyone here work in HR? Could it be he's been disaplined on something and had to do a course and stick this in?

Probably for the best - I narrowed the OP's employer down to 2 companies this morning.

Yeah I had time on my hands

Why are people allies of just LGBT? Do these employers have other equality initiatives? It's not just LGBT people who face discrimination in the workplace.

Because being old, over weight, non white and some disabilities, are visible. No black person has ever had to come out as black. No over weight person has had to sit there and announce that they are over weight, or drop it into a conversation and hope that people pick up on it. No old person has had to sit there and pretend to be 25 because they think that their line manager might be a bigot.
Think about the people you work with, especially those you don't know all that well, do you know their sexuality? Like many people (I guess) I tend to run on the assumption that someone is heterosexual until told otherwise. I couldn't give to figs, honestly, yet I know some people who are afraid to be openly gay in the workplace. I used to work somewhere where I was one of only 3 straight employees out of 10 staff members. One staff member was still very reluctant to talk about his same sex partner and home life.

True - but those people are still discriminated in the workplace. If they even get into the workplace.

No one is saying that there aren't all kinds of discriminations in the work place, but I think the reason behind the ally thing is so someone who is hiding their sexuality knows that people are behind them. You don't hide being, old, overweight or non white etc.

OrlandoWoolf Mon 27-Apr-15 09:49:08

So the OP works in the city with a company in Stonewall's Top 100 and the manager who has only been there for a few months recently asked her to attend a working lunch, she refused, she votes UKIP and has a meeting today. She may have 4 children.

I wonder if she is identifiable to anyone who knows her?

Unlikely. And you may draw from that whatever inference seems appropriate.

Is this thread still here? How odd.

Very strange in a work situation. Sounds like hes not comfortable with his sexuality. Just support him.

londonrach have you read the thread?

No ilovesooty just ops post and felt he needed support.

Looking forward to the updates from the OP.

Which could be difficult - seeing as it's from a PBP.

What's a PBP.

Really? How do you know?

In any case, I'm sure the update would be "i laid the law down and came away with £00000s" or "they begged me to stay as I'm so valuable".

Previously Banned Poster.

Another thread of theirs was deleted yesterday by MNHQ.

All to do with their UKIP poster being vandalised.

Very strange in a work situation. Sounds like hes not comfortable with his sexuality. Just support him.

And it's narrow minded comments like this which have made the term 'straight ally' important.
Some people simply cannot understand that a straight person can be pro gay rights.

This thread has just prompted me to sign up to the LGBT ally programme at work. Something I have been meaning to do for ages.

However, it is blatantly obvious when a mutually agreed reference is provided. The phrasing, everything is just off. If you were still at the deciding point, I can see how someone would use that to inform their decision.

I don't think this is right. Most companies only give this sort of reference these days:

MuminHants was employed by The Internet from 1 Jan 2000 to 15 Dec 2012 as a Mumsnet forum contributor.

It is company policy not to do more than confirm the dates of employment and job title.

Such a reference does not mean that the person was let go with a compromise agreement. But it can do.

That's why it stands out when a detailed reference arrives with very particular phrasing. I'm not entirely sure there is a benefit in having an agreed reference as part of an arrangement - I think it flags things as most references tend to be neutral. But people do ask for them so...