[FanIn80]

This one's a tough one for me. At a personal level, I feel strongly that people should be allowed to love who they love without prejudice or persecution... actually, not even just that, it should be with acceptance and equality, not merely just a lack of punishment.

But in terms of asking your employees to publicly support a cause they may not personally believe in? Like, we don't really have a society that reacts well to people who don't do whatever it wants. People just want to go to work and earn a living. Do they really need to be forced into situations where their only choice is to either sacrifice their own personal beliefs or face societal wrath? Now, keep in mind there's an ocean of difference between someone who simply doesn't want to wear a jersey, and is otherwise respectful and tolerant, vs someone who actively hates whatever the jersey stands for and demeans, belittles, etc. Those people should be rooted out and dealt with accordingly... not becuase they don't believe, but because of their comfort level in being evil little pricks with zero sense of consequence.

I think if the goal is inclusion, then including people who are respectfully "just not there yet" should also be on the table. Let's not forget that a lot of people were raised by and in situations that were not very openminded. There's that "lead a horse to water" saying, but I think with some folks it goes beyond that. Like, sometimes you just have to be ok with letting the horse know where the river is and letting them figure out for themselves when and how to get there before you even worry about whether or not they drink anything. Instead, society seems to want to drag the horse and throw it in the water and openly mock and throw rocks at any horse that resists.

Anyway. I guess my ultimate point is that if people weren't ostracized for not wanting to wear a jersey, then we'd still have Pride jerseys... but because we can't seem to figure out how to not throw rocks at people who don't do what we want them to, well... to quote the great Rasmus Andersson, it is what it is.