peterson@vaxwrk.DEC (Bob Peterson) (03/19/85)
Robert's experience sounds very intriguing, being as public as he seems to be about it. Would NGTF or a similar rights force be interested in being a non-participating observer? Especially considering he's walked thru some open doors right to the very top. I was impressed that he actually went all the way to the top. I wonder how MITRE would rank on the NGTF survey. I don't like the "We've got to drawn the line somewhere." quote. He could have phrased that though explanation of his position - but he probably hasn't reasoned it out fully - comes out sounding like a well-dressed, reasonable phobia. I would categorize roommate qualifications in three parts, Physical, Rules of the Lease, and Emotional. Physical compatibility I think everyone can agree to: smoking, drugs, allergies, etc. If you physically cannot live in the same quarters with someone because they have / do something which causes physical discomfort. Rules of the Lease: pets, waterbeds, loud partying. No trouble with the advertising renter here. The landowner is the one responsible for the rules set up in this category. The controversial set of issues is emotional compatibility: alcohol, food types, cleanliness, and just plain opinions (including racism). Is rooming with a gay person a matter of opinion? Is there further breakdown in the opinion category into "right" and "wrong"? That's a TOUGH one. "Wrong" would be when the company should not run the ad, "right" when they should. Anyone want to build on this? I politically vote for allowing the advertiser's sexual orientation to be mentioned, my natural impulse is keep orientation out of the company paper unless they have policy in place for non-discrimination in hiring, promotions, etc. \bob P.S. It's not such a bad reason, wanting to let the person know up-front what the full situation would be. I decided to handle that in my last roomate/housing hunt by discussing it openly during the interview. That way I could tell up-front if the rejection was homophobic-based or not. Salvages my personality from possible attack - it's the other guy who has the problems. But then again, it worked on the first interview, so I never tested the theory fully... P.P.S. Why advertise in the company newsletter at all? (Because it's free?) And why mention sexual orientation, the heteros don't, do they? (Then again hetero same-sex roommating isn't the same situation at all so they don't need to declare orientation). \bob usenet: decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxwrk!peterson /\ arpa: peterson%vaxwrk.DEC@decwrl.ARPA arpa: @decwrl.ARPA:peterson@vaxwrk.DEC