Much has been said and experienced about women in engineering. Women were belittled and underappreciated since the start of the Industrial Revolution; but since, there is progress in treatment, although slow. Men, among themselves, still consider that they are the dominant kind in the profession even up to now. How about those in the sexual spectrum belonging in between? Are you gay?
Source: Tumblr
Gay men and women are silently a growing presence in this field. There’s not much attention given to engineers or engineering students who are members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, because others think they do not exist. They exist, and they are a hidden minority. And more often than not, they choose to be silent, or hide in the closet rather than being open about it, because the universe is still so cruel to the LGBT – what more in a field seemingly starred by the macho.
Source: Giphy
Like the universal discrimination, engineers who are LGBT members also feel that they are not given the same opportunities as the others just because of their sexual preferences. They feel that they have a voice less of magnitude. It’s unfair. In a profession where all the possible perspectives are needed, the LGBT are essential generators of viable ideas and innovation to make the world a better place, because they always have something different to offer to the table. The LGBT, in case you missed it, are all-out creative. That’s the spice everyone needs in the field filled of technical knowledge.
But it is hard to wear the rainbow flag when you are surrounded by people who are innately homophobic. In most cases, when others identify that an engineer is gay, they regard him or her with bitterness or sourness in almost all aspects of interaction. That gay engineer soon becomes an object for bullying at school or in the workplace. This special treatment is all because that engineer is ‘a little more affiliated’ with the same sex. What is so wrong with that? Why can’t one be an engineer because of his or her capacity to be one, regardless of sexual preference?
Source: Perez Hilton
While the rights of the LGBT are still being fought to be equal with the straight, every LGBT engineer should remember to always stand up against the discrimination. If you let others continue with the discrimination, they will perpetually think it is okay. Do not let them ruin you for your sexual orientation. Tell them that they are horrible people because they measure an engineer’s worth with sex and not skills.
The ideal world is where engineers can freely walk on gay pride parades without being judged. They are let to be happy because they are born that way.
