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GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported a coworker’s threats
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TRAHR
quokk.au

TRAHR@quokk.au
Joined: 2026-08-17
Posted:   Subject: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported a coworker’s threats Quote

When Blade later texted Watson to ask why he was being fired when she knew Espinoza’s allegations were false, she allegedly responded, “you people are always so problematic and dramatic. Move on and live with your sin. You are no longer part of GameStop, so I don’t care. Just go away and get right with God.”

311   Original
Quetzalcutlass
lemmy.world
Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-02
#2 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

It was so kind of her to provide evidence for the wrongful dismissal case like that.

129
Zahille7
lemmy.world
Zahille7@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-19
#3 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

He allegedly mentioned getting people to “jump” Blade in the future, accused Blade of mishandling a customer’s account, and claimed that Blade had bad-mouthed him on the gay hookup app Grindr.

Why would this chud give a shit if he was bad-mouthed to other gay people on a gay hookup app if he's so clearly straight?

41
mkwt
lemmy.world
mkwt@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-18
#4 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

It was so kind of her to provide evidence for the wrongful dismissal case like that.

Discrimination by sexual orientation is not illegal in many states.

Retaliation for reporting illegal sexual harassment is illegal federally.

37
Catoblepas
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2023-06-13
#5 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Discrimination by sexual orientation is not illegal in many states. Retaliation for reporting illegal sexual harassment is illegal federally.

This happened in Brooklyn, it was illegal there

38
ThePowerOfGeek
lemmy.world

ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-11
#6 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

He allegedly mentioned getting people to “jump” Blade in the future, accused Blade of mishandling a customer’s account, and claimed that Blade had bad-mouthed him on the gay hookup app Grindr. Why would this chud give a shit if he was bad-mouthed to other gay people on a gay hookup app if he's so clearly straight?

Dude outted himself.

29
Canaconda
lemmy.ca
Canconda@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2025-07-10
#7 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Dude outted himself.

How tf else would he know?

Imaging talking smack to your boss like, "Yaaah I told a rando with no pfp that you suck but not in a good way".

24
Sailor Anarres
lemmy.dbzer0.com
theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-08-22
#8 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Another reason to never go to gamestop if you for some reason needed it.

9
tacosanonymous
lemmy.blahaj.zone
tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2026-07-31
#9 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

I can’t believe that a GameStop employee believes in god.

49
0li0li
lemmy.world
0li0li@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-18
#10 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Christian values at their best here. Judgement, intolerence, self-rigtheousness.

44
Bitflip
lemmy.ml
Bitflip@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-27
#11 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

I can’t believe that a GameStop employee believes in god.

Yea, their business is based on physical game sales, so there's really no excuse for them to believe in games on demand.

17
Malica
lemmy.zip

Malica@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-08-27
#12 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

That's going to be a fun payday

10
SatansMaggotyCumFart
piefed.social
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-06-16
#13 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

I can’t believe that a GameStop employee believes in god.

Personally I only buy my video game paraphernalia from other godless heathens.

7
maniclucky
lemmy.world
maniclucky@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-07
#14 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Discrimination by sexual orientation is not illegal in many states. Retaliation for reporting illegal sexual harassment is illegal federally.

Not true. If they're covered by title VII of the civil rights act, then the Supreme Court said in 2020 that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation. If they have 15 or more employees (which a Gamestop may not have that many, not sure how franchising works there), then it is illegal as far as my non-lawyer read goes.

25
TheTechnician27
lemmy.world

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-07-25
#15 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Discrimination by sexual orientation is not illegal in many states. Retaliation for reporting illegal sexual harassment is illegal federally.

Discrimination by sexual orientation is not illegal in many states.

Literally Sentence 1 of the article you came to discuss without reading:

Alec Blade, a gay man, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the video game store GameStop, alleging that his coworker at a Brooklyn store made threats and comments against him, creating a hostile workplace that violated a New York human rights law and Title VII, a federal law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination at work.

30
antianarchist
sopuli.xyz
antianarchist@sopuli.xyz
Joined: 2026-08-08
#16 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Not an LGBTQ issue, but an HR issue. I see it regularly that the reporting person gets kicked out. HR is a scum department with the only goal to save the company from troubles. They have no intention to care for the employees.

19
QueenHawlSera
piefed.social
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-07-14
#17 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

"You people?" "Get right with God"

There is no God!

8
DoucheBagMcSwag
lemmy.dbzer0.com
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-07-01
#18 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

And with our "administration" absolutely nothing will fucking happen to them

2
DoucheBagMcSwag
lemmy.dbzer0.com
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-07-01
#19 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Not true. If they're covered by title VII of the civil rights act, then the Supreme Court said in 2020 that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation. If they have 15 or more employees (which a Gamestop may not have that many, not sure how franchising works there), then it is illegal as far as my non-lawyer read goes.

Current MAGA SCOTUS will strike it down I bet now if it gets to them

6
I_Has_A_Hat
lemmy.world
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-01-24
#20 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

A reminder that being LGB is not a protected class in many states (funnily enough, T is though). So if this happened in a different state, there could be literally no consequences.

4
catsarebadpeople
sh.itjust.works

catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-13
#21 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Sounds like this is only a GameStop issue if they don't hold that psychotic manager accountable. Title is pretty disingenuous. I'll be watching to see what kind of action GameStop takes against the manager and how they make the fired employee whole though.

13
QueenHawlSera
piefed.social
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-07-14
#22 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

I can’t believe that a GameStop employee believes in god.

I can't believe anyone over 12 believes in God.

And the ones under 12 only believe in God because they were groomed into it.

6
AHemlocksLie
lemmy.zip
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2024-03-10
#23 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Sounds like this is only a GameStop issue if they don't hold that psychotic manager accountable. Title is pretty disingenuous. I'll be watching to see what kind of action GameStop takes against the manager and how they make the fired employee whole though.

Title is pretty disingenuous.

Eh, management represents the company, even more so than standard employees do. What management does, they do in GameStop's name.

Now, that doesn't mean corporate can't step in and try to correct this. They can redeem themselves pretty easily by firing the shit manager and trying to appease and bring back the fired employee. But as it stands, the action was taken in their name, and they have not yet course corrected.

11
Leon
pawb.social

Dojan@pawb.social
Joined: 2025-03-20
#24 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Yea, their business is based on physical game sales, so there's really no excuse for them to believe in games on demand.

It is? I remember GameStop being a thing back in like 2006-2007, but after that not so much until the nonsense stuff on Reddit. Then they did Crypto for a while? I thought they died with Crypto. Are there still GameStop stores around that sell physical games?

3
catsarebadpeople
sh.itjust.works

catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-13
#25 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Title is pretty disingenuous. Eh, management represents the company, even more so than standard employees do. What management does, they do in GameStop's name. Now, that doesn't mean corporate can't step in and try to correct this. They can redeem themselves pretty easily by firing the shit manager and trying to appease and bring back the fired employee. But as it stands, the action was taken i...

Yeah you're not wrong. I just want to hold my judgement and not trash GS as a whole until I see the response. I like their business but will stop patronizing if they don't handle this.

3
AHemlocksLie
lemmy.zip
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2024-03-10
#26 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Yeah you're not wrong. I just want to hold my judgement and not trash GS as a whole until I see the response. I like their business but will stop patronizing if they don't handle this.

In my opinion, it's not a good look that the manager felt comfortable doing this, not just that they did it. It's suggestive of culture or climate in management. Maybe just regionally instead of corporate wide, but they apparently weren't worried about it getting back to their boss.

That said, no hiring process is perfect, and sometimes, people do genuinely wild stuff and are shocked when the obvious consequences happen. GameStop as a whole still has every opportunity to redeem themselves, and I wouldn't be very surprised if they do, but this does kind of put them on the back foot.

4
maniclucky
lemmy.world
maniclucky@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-07
#27 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

Current MAGA SCOTUS will strike it down I bet now if it gets to them

Gorsuch and Roberts were in the majority for that one. Even odds. Now if the case on if it covers trans people gets to them no bet.

1
catsarebadpeople
sh.itjust.works

catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-13
#28 Posted:   Subject: Re: GameStop allegedly fired a gay employee after he reported... Quote Reply

In my opinion, it's not a good look that the manager felt comfortable doing this, not just that they did it. It's suggestive of culture or climate in management. Maybe just regionally instead of corporate wide, but they apparently weren't worried about it getting back to their boss. That said, no hiring process is perfect, and sometimes, people do genuinely wild stuff and are shocked when the o...

Agreed!

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