Gender, Race & Media - Andrew Ortiz EXC Blog

 Andrew Ortiz EXC Blog Post

I thought Andrew's visit to our class was very insightful and I was glad to see that there was such an emphasis on diversity and equality for the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace. I had never really thought about big corporations like ExxonMobile or how their employees went about daily life, so it was very interesting to hear from behind the scenes as to how people are pushing for their rights and their comfort in the workplace. My favorite part of this talk was how Andrew said he thought he would be able to go about his professional life without ever having to talk about his sexuality and he was prepared to never say anything about it until it got to a point where he realized that meant he could not be fully himself. A large part of the professional world is personal relationships, and that is not possible if you are being forced to hide a big part of your life. Not only that, but keeping secrets like that does the opposite of normalizing LGBTQ+ communities, which is the ultimate goal of what Andrew is involved in.