Summary

Karen Ortiz, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) administrative judge, defied Trump administration policies limiting LGBTQ+ protections by urging colleagues to resist “illegal mandates.”

After sending a mass email criticizing leadership, her email was deleted, and she faced disciplinary action.

Ortiz’s stand gained widespread online support but little public backing from colleagues, who fear retaliation. Experts say federal employees often stay silent to protect their jobs.

Ortiz, prepared for potential fallout, sees her actions as protected whistleblower activity and remains committed to civil rights advocacy, regardless of her job security.

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
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    11 hours ago

    This is what it means to be an American. You do something that you feel is right in this matter.

    It never was and never should be about how much shit you can roll yourself in and taking others along with it.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      I mean to an outsider- the Red, Pink Lavender, Scares, McCarthyism, slavery, war on drugs, terrorism, citizens united, world police, Vietnam, jim crow/segregation, prohibition, womens suffrage, strikebreaking, company towns… are all examples of freedoms being restricted by the government and applauded by the press and culture at large at the time, and later reflected on as a terrible thing.

      Civil Disobedience has always been anti-American.

      • Dzso@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I’m from a company town. I had no idea that was ever seen as a bad thing. Locally, we saw it as a source of pride. Never heard anything bad about it.

      • waterbird
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        10 hours ago

        what we did to snowden and manning was a damn shame. there is so much on the last two decades to be ashamed of. smh.