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Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
It was the worst kind of homophobia
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Caucasian
- Lesbian
- Oil/Energy/Natural Resources
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Personal Care & Service
- Coworker
- Lost Privacy
- Lost Trust
- Office Politics
My friend, who knows I am a lesbian, becomes my boss. The woman who had been my executive assistant was also a closeted lesbian, very closeted, and she started to hate me because she feared I would tell my friend. She started spreading rumors about me and acted like she would tell people I was a lesbian if I didn't do what she wanted. It was the worst kind of homophobia - I had a fellow queer blackmailing me.