CoronaQuarantine, Day 96
I can hardly believe I never thought to mention this in yesterday's DLU, especially since the news broke at the very start of the day so I knew all about it when I was writing, but I guess I was just too focused on reporting on all the events of my weekend. But this really cannot go on ignored, because the news was too fucking huge, and the first major win for what is right and just, seemingly this entire year: the Supreme Court yesterday handed down a stunning 6-3 ruling that gay and transgender people are protected from discrimination in the workplace.
To call this a victory for queer rights in this country is an understatement. To say that it came when we least expected it is also an understatement. President Fuckwit's Department of Justice argued against it; after all the shit happening over the past four years and this year in particular, there was a general expectation that this win was not forthcoming; certainly no one expected trans people to be explicitly protected as well as anyone else—after all, this came days after the Fuckwit Administration officially reversed health care protections for trans people. And you know what? This just occurred to me: yesterday's ruling sets a massive precedent, which makes it far more likely for it to go our way with further legal challenges to, say, someone refusing medical care to a trans (or even gay) person.
There are so many things that are surprising about this ruling, though. I was getting my tea yesterday morning when I learned about it, and Shobhit was watching the news. When he told me this ruling had gone our way, I didn't experience true shock just yet; I was more pleasantly surprised, figuring that whether it went our way or not, it would likely be a 5-4 decision. But after I said, "Really? By how wide a margin?" Shobhit replied, "Six-three." That was when I said, Seriously?
And Shobhit didn't even tell me that Neil Gorsuch, a conservative President Fuckwit appointee, not only voted with the majority, but wrote the majority opinion—I learned that from Alexia, who texted me about it to express how thrilled she was.
Alexia also walked with me again after work yesterday, although she only walked as far as Westlake via Denny Way, as she then had to turn and head to a furniture store she needed to go to. But, along the way, she mentioned how she had texted some four different gay couples she knew, including me, yesterday morning, and in some cases she was the one who broke the news to them. I had already gotten the overall news when she texted me, but to her credit, it was from her that I learned that Gorsuch wrote the opinion.
According to her, this was such big news that it was "breaking news" that interrupted all programs running at the time early yesterday morning. I hadn't realized that.
I keep thinking about this couple of maps I posted five years ago, showing the stunning amount of the country that still did not have local antidiscrimination ordinances. I'm so thrilled there is no such "gray area" left anymore.
We are also discovering some caveats in the wake of this. Consider this Washington Post article:
A 1960s-era ban on sex discrimination in the workplace was extended to millions of LGBT workers with the court’s 6-3 decision on Monday -- the most significant LGBT ruling since same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015. But the law doesn’t cover companies with fewer than 15 employees.
Nor did the decision address other civil rights questions, such as whether LGBT people can be refused access to housing or denied services from businesses including restaurants or movie theaters, and whether discrimination is justified by religious beliefs.
There is clearly a lot of work yet to be done. I still don't think the significance of this decision can be discounted.
I guess you could say I made a calculated risk in my decision to take the bus back home from the office, after Alexia broke off from me and I walked the rest of the way there. It was 6:13 when I arrived but there were still a few people in the office so I still kept my mask on most of the time I was in there. I didn't feel like walking all the way back home by myself, though, so I caught a #8 on Denny Way. I kind of wish now that I hadn't.
It was one thing when Shobhit rode the bus home from Total Wine & More while his car was out of commission—that was after a swing shift and there was no way those buses were crowded. This bus wasn't exactly crowded either, and every other seat was blocked, or at least had a sign on it saying not to sit there, so no two people would be sitting right next to each other. But, there were still enough people on that bus that it was impossible to be a full six feet away from anyone.
It would have been one thing if everyone on the bus had a mask on, but only most people on the bus did. I had been one of three people waiting at the bus stop before getting on the bus, and even one of those two other people did not have a mask on. While I was on the bus, a lady without a mask sat in a chair right next to a guy about three seats in front of me who did have a bandana over his face. This lady had a cute little dog that sniffed all over that guy's face, pawing at the bags of groceries he had in his lap.
At another point, a young man without a mask got on the bus and sat directly in front of me. I wouldn't have thought anything of how close he was if he'd had a fucking mask on. And the least he could have done was face forward, but he spent about half his time turned to the side so I could see his profile. Thanks, asshole. COVER YOUR FUCKING FACE.
Now, I keep thinking about that simple formula: "successful transmission = exposure to virus X time." I don't think I was on that bus any more than 10 minutes, maybe less. It's very unlikely I got infected by anyone. But, the experience did make me think I should still have just sucked it up and walked the entire way home. I would have gotten far more peace of mind out of it, and given how long I waited for the bus to arrive to begin with and what time it was when I finally got home, I hardly saved myself more than all of ten minutes or so by getting on that bus at all. Granted, I did get off earlier than intended, on Olive Way by Glo's just so I could get my photo of a Utilikilt Witch after that person got off the same bus. But, that witch hat gave me all the excuse I needed to get off that bus where unmasked people so close to me were starting to freak me out a little.
It's going to be interesting seeing how people in Pacific County, where Long Beach is located, will be dealing with masks. My guess is nearly no one there will be wearing them. Alexia told me she and her friends had gone into a café in a small town in the Cascades last week near where they had gone hiking, and someone there gave them shit for wearing masks. What those morons don't get is that whether it's Alexia or Shobhit and me, we're still coming from King County, where half the state's COVID cases are located. People look at you wearing a mask in other counties and think you're being ridiculous and trying to protect yourself, and it never registers that what we are doing is trying to protect them. That's the whole point of the fucking masks! And people refusing to wear them are truly only caring about themselves and not the people around them. They think "I'm not sick, so it's fine." And that attitude is precisely why the virus continues to spread.
[posted 12:35 pm]