Gozefo

Bangalore Mirror

Sahana

Vidya

Joshua Muyiwa

Romal Singh

Avinaba D

Vidya Pai

Two shameful acts: TV channel outs women,.com sacks one of themA day afterreported the shocking police complaint filed against two women for informally marrying each other, it has emerged that one of the women has been fired from her company.“The company (gozefo.com) people called me in the morning and asked me if I want to continue in the job or not. They asked me to talk to my parents and get back. I told them I’ll talk to my lawyers and get back. When I called them back at 5.30 pm, they said HR had decided that you leave the company since they know that it’s me who is making rounds in the media from morning. This is totally unfair,” said the younger woman.“No one can just claim that it’s her and throw her out of the company. They told her it’s very evident from what the TV channels have showed in the visuals, and did this. We did not get married at all. In fact, I’m related to her and we live in the same house. This is really not acceptable,” the other woman said.The shameful sacking by Gozefo.com, an e-commerce marketplace that deals in refurbished and second-hand goods, came after a TV channel outed the women and published their pictures from their Facebook page.The older woman, namedin BM’s story, said she called up the TV channel in the afternoon to ask them why they had published their images. “They told me that Bangalore Mirror had published the story and there was nothing wrong in them doing the same,” she said.BM had written about the FIR that one of the women’s father had lodged with the Vijayanagar police in its Wednesday issue ( ‘All hells breaks loose after two women wed in Koramangala’ ). The women clarified on Wednesday that they had not got married and it was just a smear campaign launched by the father of one of the women.In its Wednesday story, BM had not identified the women and had given them fictitious names as it feared a backlash.The sacking drew sharp reactions from members of the LGBTIQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, intersex and queers) community; they even launched a campaign asking their supporters to boycott gozefo.com.“Section 377 is a massively outdated law that does not belong in this age and in our country. Also, a story about two adults who are not breaking any law is not a story worth sensationalising. If at all there was an angle in this story, it should have been about the parents who tried to coerce adult women away from exercising the rights that they enjoy as citizens of this country to live as they please and make their own decisions. The actions of the police in aiding in this harassment and the irresponsible media coverage of the same show how far we have to go as a country. And 377 encourages this kind of harassment. The archaic British law needs to go, and it needs to go now,” said, from All Sorts of Queer (ASQ), a city-based queer support group., an LGBTIQ community member and a Bangalore Mirror columnist, said: “It’s quite shocking that personal choices are affecting professional life. Social media is responsible for these incidents as people start talking about them and that affects public image.”“This is atrocious! How can a business in this day and age afford to be so homophobic? Also, there was no proof of the marriage or of them even being in a relationship. Even if there was, is it okay to be so openly homophobic and hateful? Instead of supporting an employee during a hard time, you make it worse - what work ethic is this? What kind of business moral drives this company? This kind of hatred should be nipped in the bud. I boycott all their services and encourage everyone else to do so, till they apologise and reinstate her, with proper damages paid,” said, another LGBTIQ activist.“What the channel did was very wrong. They blurred the face, but anybody could make out who they were,” he added.Co-founder of Queer Collective India, Priyank, said, “I think it is definitely unethical on the part of the company to fire someone based on their orientation. This clearly shows the lack of sensitivity and equality amongst the corporate companies such as (company name). I’m truly disappointed on this issue.”Other LGBTIQ activists were equally livid. Mahesh N said, “At a time when companies are trying really hard to be inclusive and attract LGBT talent, it is really upsetting to see such misguided action from a company like Gozefo.com. We really hope the progressive founders take quick corrective action and reset their company culture to be more inclusive of LGBT people.”said: “It is ridiculous that somebody is getting fired from her workplace for a decision taken in her personal life. It only proves that how unsafe the landscape for us and why we need to anti-discrimination policy to protect our rights.”“What we are hearing is very shocking and fearful not just to the LGBTIQ community but also to many others. How can a company choose to fire an employee merely because some news channels ran a story alleging her to be part of LGBTIQ community? Irrespective of whether it’s true or not, this kind of act shows homophobia and preconceived notions of management of that company and it’s a medieval mindset. Being someone who understands the importance of respecting diversity, neither would I buy any products from that company nor would I suggest any of my friends to work there,” saidSrinivas M, another activist.Gozefo.com did not respond to queries from Bangalore Mirror. A senior member of the company who interacted briefly with BM said it was hard to believe that the company had fired a woman on the grounds mentioned above. He did not offer any official reaction. Queries to their helpline also went unanswered.* ** Section 377 is a massively outdated law... Also, a story about two adults who are not breaking any law is not a story worth sensatio­nalising. The actions of the police and theirresponsible media coverage show how far we have to go as a country.