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A Revzilla article calls out the culture of homophobia and transphobia in the MC industry.

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TylerW

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This article was pretty distressing to read. I can't imagine the additional stress you have to take on to insulate such a significant portion of your life from your livelihood, just so you aren't blackballed by work overnight. So if you get to the end, this article is, cynically speaking, Revzilla basically patting themselves on the back, so this could be another exercise in rainbow capitalism. But at least they've done the work to make sure that they're an inclusive company for all types of riders. That's a good thing.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tre...I4qQ4C23nAngP4M5EsltTmaGx1VNASgBuH9wjIqIyFqdU

However, the motorcycle industry has deep-seated, institutionalized, systemic, homophobia and transphobia that are barely concealed just under the surface — if at all. Over my years of working as a mechanic, a salesman, at the parts counter, as a warehouse manager, in customer service, and as an event coordinator, I learned that most of the industry still operates on a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

In spite of that, some of the most celebrated pioneers of motorcycling fell into the rainbow of LGBTQ. Gay service men coming home after serving in World War II rode motorcycles and started clubs, the same way a lot of the straight service members did. We have ridden by your side, gone drinking together, fixed your bikes, bought and sold your motorcycles. But, the fear of losing our livelihoods and our lives has kept us in the closet for a long time.

I have always lived in the open, but soon after I started in the industry I learned that at work I couldn't be me. Openly gay, effeminate men are relegated to selling T-shirts and helmets, but I wanted to build and work on bikes. I slowly started learning to hide part of myself. I made sure to remove the nail polish from the weekend before I went to work. I had to have more jeans, more flannel, more moto bro shirts and a more "hell yeah, brother" attitude. Every general manager at every dealership I worked for gave me the speech that I had to look and act more like a "biker."
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As soon as you are outed, everything changes. Coworkers stop talking to you. Customers stop requesting you. The service writers stop sending you repair orders. Now that you aren't getting repair orders, you're labeled as unproductive and your hours are cut. You quickly go from "One of the best employees we've ever had" to "This isn't working for us. We are going to have to let you go."

The only way to break this vicious cycle is to quit, look for another shop that has no ties to your previous shop, and back in the closet you go. Because I still have bills to pay and need to put food on my table. So I learned to lock the closet door better. I shoved more and more of myself inside, to the point that it felt like I was living two separate lives. Most of my friends could not understand the duality I had to deal with in my chosen profession. My personal life is full of open, honest, and loving people — those who love me for who I am. My professional life was hypermasculine, pathologically straight, and I went to work with an underlying dread of being found out.

I wasn't the only one. One Saturday night I was having a wonderful time with friends at a drag show and ran into a fellow employee from my dealership and their partner. He was almost in tears as he begged me not to say anything at work. He offered me all the cash in his pocket to keep his secret. That is how deeply he feared being outed.
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Motorcycling is one of the most toxic cultures to exist next to video games.

Source: Me motorcyclist. Former gamer & reformed edgelord.
 
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Karbon said:
Motorcycling is one of the most toxic cultures to exist next to video games.

Source: Me motorcyclist. Former gamer & reformed edgelord.
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Oh, Motorcycling is worse than video games. There are pockets of gaming that are still toxic as fuck, but there has been a lot more of a push to improve. A lot of gamers also tend to like cosplaying and con culture and other cultural areas that are VERY pro LGBTQ. Because of that there has been a lot more pressure to change and do better that hasn't existed in motorcycling.
 
IDK, the dealership I bought my first street bike at in 1979 was owned by 2 lesbians. They were incredibly patient with a 17 y/o high school kid learning the two wheeled world.
 
Johndicezx9 said:
IDK, the dealership I bought my first street bike at in 1979 was owned by 2 lesbians. They were incredibly patient with a 17 y/o high school kid learning the two wheeled world.
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Sure, but the existence of a handful of queer-inclusive shops doesn't meant that the rest of the industry isn't a horrorshow. We don't need a #NotAllShops movement. ;)
 
I don't know, this seems to be more a matter of cultural preferences than prejudice against the LGBTQ community.

Being gay is not a speech pattern or a fashion statement. It sound like if this person writing the article was down to bro up, wear the right clothes and speak the right way, no one cared if he was going home to a husband or a wife.

:dunno
 
Karbon said:
Motorcycling is one of the most toxic cultures to exist next to video games.

Source: Me motorcyclist. Former gamer & reformed edgelord.
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As a lifetime dirt biker and with a child gamer, I have to agree.
 
Eldritch said:
I don't know, this seems to be more a matter of cultural preferences than prejudice against the LGBTQ community.

Being gay is not a speech pattern or a fashion statement. It sound like if this person writing the article was down to bro up, wear the right clothes and speak the right way, no one cared if he was going home to a husband or a wife.

:dunno
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Did you even read the article?

He directly addressed doing this. He addressed what it cost him, mentally. He addressed that somehow, he would still get outed. Also, even if he was able to do this and never get outed, the place is still toxic and homophobic.
 
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Karbon said:
Motorcycling is one of the most toxic cultures to exist next to video games.

Source: Me motorcyclist. Former gamer & reformed edgelord.
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Video games, motorcycles, combat sports. I'd rank them but it depends on the day and what people are currently mad about.

A fighter from last week's UFC card got a bunch of shit because the letters of his name on his shorts were rainbow colors.

I haven't played video games online with random people in years. Getting called a faggot nigger that takes it in the ass gets kinda old after awhile.
 
TylerW said:
Did you even read the article?

He directly addressed doing this. He addressed what it cost him, mentally. He addressed that somehow, he would still get outed. Also, even if he was able to do this and never get outed, the place is still toxic and homophobic.
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I did, and it was hard to tell if the problem was related directly to his sexual preferences or if it was more about the fact that he was super femme in an industry that tends to expect the grease monkeys to be butch.
 
Eldritch said:
I did, and it was hard to tell if the problem was related directly to his sexual preferences or if it was more about the fact that he was super femme in an industry that tends to expect the grease monkeys to be butch.
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From the article:

Personally, I have advantages that others don't. I was raised in the South, so I have an accent. I have a beard and tattoos. People don't look at me and assume I'm gay. I have even been told I "don't seem like one of… them." Through my perseverance and insistence on finding a place in this industry, I'm now able to say I work for RevZilla, where I have never been asked to be anything but myself.
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Maybe the dude just wanted to wear a Pansy Division shirt to work once in a while. Or like another part of the article mentioned, he had a pair of sunglasses that he liked to wear that were pink.

Your advice is utterly worthless to a transgender person. And what happens when the rest of the wrenching crew starts telling their favorite "fag" jokes

Its putting the onus on LGBT workers to closet themselves for the purpose of maintaining the status quo of a homophobic, toxic work environment. Why?
 
TylerW said:
From the article:



Maybe the dude just wanted to wear a Pansy Division shirt to work once in a while. Or like another part of the article mentioned, he had a pair of sunglasses that he liked to wear that were pink.

Your advice is utterly worthless to a transgender person. And what happens when the rest of the wrenching crew starts telling their favorite "fag" jokes

Its putting the onus on LGBT workers to closet themselves for the purpose of maintaining the status quo of a homophobic, toxic work environment. Why?
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What advise? What are you talking about? I'm just saying it felt hard to decipher the exact root of the prejudice that person was facing based on the descriptions in the article, because he seemed to be using being femme and being a part of the LGBT community interchangeably.

:dunno
 
Eldritch said:
I did, and it was hard to tell if the problem was related directly to his sexual preferences or if it was more about the fact that he was super femme in an industry that tends to expect the grease monkeys to be butch.
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Maybe that expectation is fucked up and wrong? If a person can do the job should the image matter?
 
Eldritch said:
What advise? What are you talking about? I'm just saying it felt hard to decipher the exact root of the prejudice that person was facing based on the descriptions in the article, because he seemed to be using being femme and being a part of the LGBT community interchangeably.

:dunno
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Your advice that he should just "butch" himself back into the closet and get back to work.

You seem to be missing the entire point of the article. The article isn't about him. The article is about the rampant homophobia and transphobia in the motorcycle industry, as he witnessed himself working through various jobs and shops. His problem is now solved, at least for the time being: he works at one of the few inclusive workplaces in the MC industry. The problem still exists just about everywhere else.

I have to wonder how much this lingering attitude has had an effect on the industry's bottom line. The motocycle industry has been in a decline for a while, and I can see, at least from my perspective, that trying to preserve the image of motorcycling as a safe space white, wealthy heteronormativity wouldn't appleal to a lot of young people.
 
Mike95060 said:
Maybe that expectation is fucked up and wrong? If a person can do the job should the image matter?
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Is it? I don't know. I prefer a more meritocratic method as you have described, and that is how I run my life, but I have no interest in telling other people how to believe. I certainly am against anyone reducing social pressure from communities for others to live up to their preconceived notions.

Choose to be different and suffer the consequences. It is he struggle of the nonconformist that creates their strength and is the reason they should be admired. :dunno

TylerW said:
Your advice that he should just "butch" himself back into the closet and get back to work.

You seem to be missing the entire point of the article. The article isn't about him. The article is about the rampant homophobia and transphobia in the motorcycle industry, as he witnessed himself working through various jobs and shops. His problem is now solved, at least for the time being: he works at one of the few inclusive workplaces in the MC industry. The problem still exists just about everywhere else.

I have to wonder how much this lingering attitude has had an effect on the industry's bottom line. The motocycle industry has been in a decline for a while, and I can see, at least from my perspective, that trying to preserve the image of motorcycling as a safe space white, wealthy heteronormativity wouldn't appleal to a lot of young people.
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I gave no such advise. I am not a homophobe, a member of the LGBT community, or a member of the autosports industry, so I have zero opportunity to advise anyone here. :dunno

As we are all utterly alone in our experiences and in any social responsibility to one another, so of course the author's experiences in that article were about the experiences of that individual alone.

All of us are in nothing together. What that dude went through sounds annoying, but it worked out for him, I'm glad it did. I did not cause that struggle, nor am I interested in changing or correcting anything other people do so others do not have to have to experience that struggle.

If others do experience a similar struggle, I hope it also works out well for them. I will continue to not be a part of contributing to that struggle nor be particularly motivated to create social pressure to remove it.

:dunno
 
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