Apologies for the rant.
Very nice start of the week for my brother. A member of staff at a local train station called him a 'batty.' (I won't name the station). My brother is openly gay. Why the abuse from the woman? My brother was late for work and needed his ticket to be topped up. The machine to do so was broke and another had a long queue. He asked the woman at the counter if she could do so, mentioning the faulty machine. He asked politely that he had less than 60 seconds to catch the train. This was the trigger.
She stated she had abuse all morning and would not take his order. She cancelled the transaction and threw the card at him across the counter! Thus he missed the train. He decided to make a complaint. He asked for her name (which she proudly showed the badge on her breast). He asked for the pen. another trigger. She sucked in her teeth and said 'Batty!' (and now he is complaining about that too).
What will happen? Nothing I suspect. Her union will back her whatever. I support unions but I have noticed that the nasty people seem to get the best support from the organisation. Maybe it's because they are most vociferous. I suspect she will claim she was racially abused. Alas, my brother should bring along an ex or two, as he seems to go out with men from West Indian background. I wonder what she would say to such men! A fellow West Indian who is gay! The horror! (At least the CCTV footage will show who was the aggressive party in this, and throwing tickets and pens at people). I do hope the RMT union does not support her too strongly. I have seen their conspicuous stall at Gay Pride in London trying to trumpet their gay rights' credentials. I wonder if they only care about gay members, not the gay population as a whole.
Very nice start of the week for my brother. A member of staff at a local train station called him a 'batty.' (I won't name the station). My brother is openly gay. Why the abuse from the woman? My brother was late for work and needed his ticket to be topped up. The machine to do so was broke and another had a long queue. He asked the woman at the counter if she could do so, mentioning the faulty machine. He asked politely that he had less than 60 seconds to catch the train. This was the trigger.
She stated she had abuse all morning and would not take his order. She cancelled the transaction and threw the card at him across the counter! Thus he missed the train. He decided to make a complaint. He asked for her name (which she proudly showed the badge on her breast). He asked for the pen. another trigger. She sucked in her teeth and said 'Batty!' (and now he is complaining about that too).
What will happen? Nothing I suspect. Her union will back her whatever. I support unions but I have noticed that the nasty people seem to get the best support from the organisation. Maybe it's because they are most vociferous. I suspect she will claim she was racially abused. Alas, my brother should bring along an ex or two, as he seems to go out with men from West Indian background. I wonder what she would say to such men! A fellow West Indian who is gay! The horror! (At least the CCTV footage will show who was the aggressive party in this, and throwing tickets and pens at people). I do hope the RMT union does not support her too strongly. I have seen their conspicuous stall at Gay Pride in London trying to trumpet their gay rights' credentials. I wonder if they only care about gay members, not the gay population as a whole.