Probably because one of those two is a religious statement, while another one is a political statement. Which makes sense, given that religious affiliation is a protected group when it comes to employment, while political affiliation/speech typically isn't.
I don't think so.
Therefore, it is an assumption to say the individual is conveying a political view. It very well may be a religious view that is being challenged in the political arena.
Some doctors would also state that it is a scientific argument. ( not protected I know but just showing it isn't entirely political )
But most of these cases are equivalent to someone being fired for wearing whatever t-shirt at home, so that's not really a distinction that gets you out of the problem.
You raise an interesting point, because I feel like they would be fired for that indeed. What makes it interesting is that it becomes a political message wrapped in a religious statement, and I have zero clue as to how courts would approach that.
I think it just could be the case of a simple misconduct that has nothing to do with religious prosecution, because I don't think you would be able to get away with wearing a tshirt with a lot of really explicit and graphic quotes from the old testament at work, despite them having nothing to do with gender or politics (e.g., the example of Ezekiel 23:20 with very explicit content about reproductive anatomy of horses and donkeys comes to mind).
Yes, which makes me believe that you are legally protected from being fired for publicly expressing your affiliation with a religious group. However, you are not protected from being fired for expressing political views, regardless of whether they stem from the religion you are affiliated with or some other source.
This is just an armchair lawyer level of reasoning on my end here, I have no idea if this is how it actually legally works, but that sort of makes sense. So if someone with the actual knowledge can chime in, that would be appreciated.
this whole cancel culture I think has taken a turn for the worse in the recent past.
Well yeah, but they can be, and their employer won't get in any legal trouble. Having controversial political statements on your tshirt doesn't mean that you will get fired or that you deserve to be fired, it means that your employer has a right to fire you for it with zero legal repercussions. And if the employer doesn't want to fire you for your political statement, they won't, it's up to them.
You can't be fired simply for belonging to a religion.
However, belonging to a religion doesn't legally excuse your other actions such as harassing others based on their religion/sex/whatever.
So, you can belong to the Church of Satan, and even tell people that you belong to it -- that's your business. But you can't harass Christians for being Christian. That's their business.
Similarly, you can believe there are only two genders and those who transgress those boundaries are wrong. That's your business. But you can't harass coworkers based on those beliefs. That's their business.
If yes, then it would mean that wearing a "there are only 2 genders" tshirt would essentially count as harassing a protected class based on their belonging to that protected class. Which seems like pretty clear grounds for termination, and no "this is just my religion" excuses are going to help here.
Just like wearing a quote from the bible on your tshirt saying that women aren't supposed to hold seniority over men would very certainly get you fired as well, despite that being a part of your religious textbook and you belonging to that protected class.
Dispelling a myth here, the Bible doesn't actually say "women aren't supposed to hold seniority over men". It is true that it has been used in this manner and interpreted by certain organizations as such. Strong lined Complementarianism [0] espouse this belief.
However, the conclusion is not supported by the text and context nor by the rest of the Bible. [1]
To use a verse already quoted here Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus". This verse has everything to do with equality and nothing to do with the topic it was used for elsewhere in this thread. ( read it in context and you will see ).
I know I may get flamed/down voted for this but it is extremely important.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementarianism
[1] https://almostheretical.com/episodes/authority-over-a-man
In the macro, it's relevant to issues of school/workplace speech in the sense that it's good to remember that major religions are awfully large tents and represent a wide plurality of beliefs. Christianity is not necessarily synonymous with any particular belief regarding gender, etc. The same could be said of other major world religions.
I'm an atheist and therefore don't have a horse in this race. But it's one reason why merely identifying as belonging to a religion is fine in the workplace, whereas espousing specific religious beliefs that disparage others is a problem.
The comment thread was specifically regarding religion so it is entirely applicable and important.
There are plenty of examples on HN where religious documents other than the Bible or the Pentateuch are discussed. [0][1][2]
Religion and/or the lack thereof impacts our culture and politics in outstanding ways. To ignore them or not discuss them leaves us blind to significant reasonings that have built the world we live in today.
[0] https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5GCEM_en&q=site:news.yco...
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...
Just like wearing a quote from the bible on
your tshirt saying that women aren't supposed
to hold seniority over men would very certainly
get you fired as well, despite that being a
part of your religious textbook and you belonging
to that protected class.
Why would biological facts be considered "political statements"? (assuming gender = biological sex, which is the usual usage from regular talk to identity papers throughout the world).
No, I would label them all as "political" except the satan church one. Because the satan church tshirt you mentioned doesn't make any kind of a statement aside from signaling belonging to or support of a religious group.
However, if the satan church tshirt made an additional statement (after "satan church") like "abortions should be legal", I would count it as a political statement as well.
"Flat earth" is just as much of a political statement as "Spherical earth" is (science and validity aside). You can get fired for either without much legal repercussions for the employer. Whether you get fired or not for wearing that tshirt is fully up to how your boss feels about it.
To put it simply, "protected class/speech" doesn't mean that you can wrap any statement inside of it and you are protected from getting fired. Especially if that statement you wrapped inside goes directly against another protected class (e.g., if you had a christian church tshirt that said "islam is a fake religion"), then I bet you are gonna get fired extremely fast, and saying "religion is a protected class" won't help you much there.
It's worth noting that it's legal in all states but Montana to fire someone for absolutely no reason at all, meaning that in 49 states + DC all firing discrimination is effectively legal so long as it's obfuscated enough to stay out of court.
I see people asking for legal advice online re: being fired as soon as they come out as gay or refuse to attend the church suggested by their boss like once or twice a month. Often times the company has less than 15 employees so there's no violation even if it's spelled out.
If it were just that then who cares. No, the problem is that a small group of agitators whip a mob into a frenzy of targeted harassment at friends, family, and employers of the person being cancelled, a process that naturally gives no way for the target to defend themself or for the true facts of the situation to even be known. This is literal mob justice.