In today’s white man filling your news feed, Damore, who was recently fired from Google for circulating a sexist memo, told Business Insider that he was the subject of ideological discrimination against conservatives. “Really, it’s like being gay in the 1950s. These conservatives have to stay in the closet and have to mask who they really are. And that’s a huge problem because there’s open discrimination against anyone who comes out of closet as a conservative.”

The big glaring problem with this statement is that he conveniently skips over the fact that you can be fired for being gay. Today. In 28 states. In 30 states you can be fired for being transgender. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects discrimination on the basis of sex, but not explicitly of sexual orientation and only 22 states have instituted employer non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation and gender identity.



Also, being gay in the 1950s was infinitely tougher than being James Damore in 2017. Alan Turing, the pioneering British computer scientist, was chemically castrated by his government for being gay in 1952. Many believe this horrific incident led him to commit suicide in 1954.

Alan Turing was chemically castrated for being gay in the 1950s. Fuck this guy. https://t.co/ZuSo5AoUVh — Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 18, 2017

It’s more than possible that Damore just doesn’t know any of this. But that only underscores the insularity of his privilege.

