SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG

Read and share the extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change

Impact Fund Joins Fight Against Transgender Discrimination at Starbucks
Civil Rights, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington Civil Rights, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington

Impact Fund Joins Fight Against Transgender Discrimination at Starbucks

Most of Maddie’s coworkers were supportive of her transition and easily adjusted to her new name and pronouns. Over the following weeks, however, Dustin became cold and distant. He started avoiding her, cut her hours, and stopped talking to her about further career advancement. For months, Dustin insisted on calling Maddie by her former name or male nicknames, deliberating misgendering her. Outside of work, Dustin was a regular poster of anti-transgender memes and messages on Facebook and Twitter. When Maddie tried to discuss Guthrie’s hostile behavior with him, he ignored her. When she reached out to other Starbucks managers, she received no meaningful response. Experiencing significant anxiety and depression, Maddie had no choice but to leave Starbucks in June 2018.

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Jamaican Anti-Sodomy Law, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington Jamaican Anti-Sodomy Law, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington

Long Road to Justice for LGBTQI Jamaicans

As a lawyer defending the human rights of LGBTQI people in Jamaica, I am accustomed to receiving death threats. But when I received a particularly vulgar and graphic email threatening to immediately end my life, I was so shaken that I finally went to the police. What happened next shocked me...

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