This week saw me putting up my Christmas tree. For years I’ve had rather ironic Christmas trees, and this year’s tree is no different.
Three years ago I had a four-foot, self-lit, tinsel tree; last year it was a spindly, five-foot stick tree with mini, lit yellow and red maple leaves, and this year it’s a six and a half-foot white fake “Jackson Spruce” lit with strands of Hello Kitty lights and a color wheel. None of these artificial trees by design have looked anything at all like natural trees; the goal for me has been to make sure these trees look as artificial as possible.
The blatantly fake appearance of these trees isn’t what gave these trees an ironic spin though: it’s my collection of ornaments. With only the one exception of a saluting sailor, all of the ornaments I hang on my clearly artificial trees are connected to specific products and/or businesses. The tree is designed to look jokingly commercial to send an opposite message about Christmas commercialization; holidays are about people we love, not about stuff we buy.
But I love the joke of the ornaments on my tree. For example, I’ve several beverage based ornaments for my tree; from Coke to Pepsi; from Duncan Donuts’ coffee to Starbucks; from Caribou Coffee to Peet’s Coffee and Tea; as well as alcohol related ornaments from Budweiser, Crown Royal and Jägermeister.
Restaurants? McDonalds, Jack-In-The-Box, Pizza Hut and Anderson’s Split Pea Soup. Food? M&Ms, Cracker Jack’s, Hershey’s Chocolate, Sugar Crisps, Pillsbury and Oscar Mayer wieners. Oh, and a Science Diet ornament for what my cats eat.
As for games, I’ve ornaments for Trivial Pursuit, Sorry, Simon and Galaga.
And toys. Oh my gosh, toys. I have ornaments that represent Barbie, Transformers, My Little Pony, Lego, Rainbow Brite, Crayola, Magic 8-Ball, Strawberry Shortcake, Hot Wheels and Care Bears – and I’m sure a few I’ve missed.
As for more adult business endeavors, I have ornaments representing Home Depot, Sears, Texaco, Hotel del Coronado, Bass Pro Shops and … and …
Oh yeah. Cabela’s.
One of my hobbies is fishing, so last year I went looking online for ornaments that reflected that love of fishing. So on eBay last December, I found ornaments for Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, and then bought them both.
And here 12-months later, with intention I don’t shop at Cabela’s anymore. Kate Lynn Blatt was employed at Cabela’s between September 2006 and March 2007. This past March the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) determined that she was most likely discriminated against during that period of employment, and have issued her a right-to-sue letter.
Blatt is now suing Cabela’s for antitransgender discrimination.
Blatt began transitioning while employed at Cabela’s. To quote Phillymag.com “Kate Lynn Blatt’s lawsuit claims that management wouldn’t let her wear a gender-appropriate uniform, they forced her to wear a name tag with her birth name on it, and refused to let her use the women’s restroom.”
Cabela’s behavior didn’t seem very humane. “I mean [the discrimination] personally tore me down,” Blatt told Phillymag.com “It never let up, they never stopped, and it prevented me from expressing who I was. [My right to use the women’s restroom was] refused and thrown in my face, even after I had provided all the documentation and proved my case.”
The discrimination is all alleged at this point, and no court ruling or settlement over Blatt’s alleged discrimination has occurred as yet. But, it’s something to me that the EEOC found that discrimination likely occurred, just as it’s something to me that Cabela’s has not responded to repeated requests to participate in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index survey. The behavior by Cabela’s looks to have been intentionally antitransgender.
Over the years I’ve spent hundreds of dollars at Cabela’s on fishing equipment, and I even have a pair of Cabela’s branded fleece pants I bought to wear when fishing in cold weather. I haven’t bought anything from Cabela’s since I read about this story this past spring, and don’t wear the pants out.
So, my Cabela’s Christmas ornament will stay in the storage box this year, and maybe stay there for many years to come. In a sense my Cabela’s ornament would fit nicely on my jokingly ironic Christmas tree, but I don’t see any irony in discrimination against LGBT community members – discrimination isn’t a joke.
