this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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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.

all 22 comments
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[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 10 points 7 hours ago

Thank You, Justice Ortiz!!

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 60 points 12 hours ago

This is not rogue. DOGE and the president are rogue. This person is following the law.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 20 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

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.

Welcome to doing the right thing.

Political activism is full of people that stand up to fuckery, only to get silence.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It just means it takes time. And frequency also matters. Keep up the pressure. Today is this wonderful lady. Next week it'll be another person. Then another. Then another.

[–] _cnt0@sh.itjust.works 42 points 11 hours ago

Title should be:

Meet the federal worker who did not blindly follow rogue president: ‘I hope that it lights a fire under people’

[–] venotic@kbin.melroy.org 94 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

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 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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 2 points 6 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.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

This has nothing to do with being American, it's about being a decent human being, there's a shit ton of Americans who disagree with her.

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

While you're definitely right that this is more of a decent human being thing, I'm actually a really big fan of the "good American" narrative.

So many of our fascist peers believe they are being good Americans. Let's distort their view back towards the ~~individual~~ collective workforce instead of the oligarchy

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Towards the collective you mean, the reason why the US is so shit is because of the focus on the individual and because the US is so good at exporting its culture everywhere it's now affecting other countries and sending them down a regressive spiral in the name of individual freedom.

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Yes actually you're right. I said individual because I meant "the little man" but "the little man" is more accurately described as the collective working class than any particular individual. None of us are individually the little man. We are all strong and capable of great things, so long as we work together as a collective. The little man is the idea of those who need to be protected, and we all need to be protected. Thank you for the correction

[–] Demdaru@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

I can see it as American thing tho. Ya all were all 'bout freedom, no? Some dumb schmuck enter yer property, ya shoot im dead . Gov decides to be a dick, ya shoot em dead. This lady seems more on pacifist side and instead did that.

[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

One administrative judge at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission speaks out for equal employment opportunity, as the Commission turns the other way.

This smells of American patriotism.

[–] verdantbanana@lemmy.world -5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

thanks Ortiz for doing more than even Biden ever would have done during any of his time as a politician

maybe real Democrats do exist

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 18 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 hours ago

Nah he can still win in 2028