What legal recourse does someone have if they are fired for suggesting they are gay?

[stilanas]

I mentioned my nazi coworkers in my thread in young hippies. (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4045) I have a summer job with a land surveying company in jacksonville in between semesters to save up some money for next semester. Today they made a comment about "queers" that made me very uncomfortable. My coworkers have shown themselves to be bigoted before in such ways as refering to blacks as "niggers" and "crackheads" along with making misogynist comments about every womyn who passes by. I have a serious ethical objection to this bigotry. My father, a conservative albiet more moderate than they, who got me the job, tells me to keep my "partisanism" out of it.

Am I supposed to sit back and let them get away with this? What if somebody else exposes them and tarnishes the reputation of everyone who works there, including me? I intend to go to law school some day. What if this happens and a background check reveals I worked with bigots and sat back and let it happen? What would happen if one of these people crusifies another Matthew Shepard? Even though I'm not what one might consider gay or bi, since I *do* favor womyn I have gotten off to gay porn and I could see myself experimenting with it, which I guess would put me at 1 or 2 on the Kinsley scale. If I were to express this like I do here or to my friends at school, could I get fired? Would I have any legal recourse if I did? Maybe next time they bring it up I should.

What's the ethical thing to do?

[monosphere]

What if somebody else exposes them and tarnishes the reputation of everyone who works there, including me? I intend to go to law school some day. What if this happens and a background check reveals I worked with bigots and sat back and let it happen?
I don't think that's a likely issue. There are assholes in every job. My boss is somewhat homophobic as was my last one. The last one actually made comments about how gays shouldn't have certain jobs. That pissed me off to no extent. Anyway, just because you work in that atmosphere doesn't mean you approve of the subject matter there. Besides, having bigoted views are not against the law.

If you feel that you're in a hostile working environment, you can report the boss to Labor & Industries. I threatened to do that with my last boss, but he was fired by the owner(his mom) before I could go through with it. But check the laws in your area before you do anything to see what legal rights you have. If you report it and L&I won't do anything, then you might have made the working situation worse. In the meantime, I'd start keeping my eye open for a friendlier place to work.

Mono