I don't feel like posting this on my account because I have a feeling I will be misunderstood. But I trust you to make sense of my thoughts.
Regarding the Justin situation. I think in general it is the right decision for any company to terminate their contract with a talent if they have spead hateful sentiment in any capacity. I also think 15 year olds shouldn't be famous. And most of all I think the adults in his life have failed him. Those that must have shared similar sentiments and made him think that this is ok. Those that didn't screen the social media he is using and what the algorithm feeds him. Those that are supposed to manage his public image and didn't 1) wipe his accounts and 2) sit him down and explain why it isn't ok.
He would have had an opportunity to learn here but I fear it may have been missed. Because the backlash will most likely make him feel defensive and some reactions I have seen to his apology would certainly make me feel like I am not believed to be able to change. I truly hope there are people in this childs life who can help him grow but there is a real risk that the way he is spoken to and about will make him double down (though probably not publically).
None of this is to say that we shouldn't call discriminatory behaviour out or that there shouldn't be consequences. (In fact, I wish there were more consequences for other offenders, such as Joss.) But I am surprised just how much people expect of a 15 year old.
I feel like people are gonna mistakenly assume I support what Justin posted and what Joss is seen as supporting, but I just…care about workers’ rights??? Because that’s one of the things that’s disruptive to unregulated capitalism, y’all, and that’s also an lgbt issue! Let’s look at labor laws in Thailand.
Thailand has no at-will employment in its labor laws. That’s a good thing, because it protects individuals from termination without just cause. Do you wanna know one population who is especially at-risk in at-will employment environments? lgbt folks who want to come out and remain employed. In 2015, the Gender Equality Act luckily made discrimination based on gender or sexuality illegal in any context including employment, but it remains an issue.
Here are what constitute “just cause” under Thai labor laws: if employees commit negligent acts impacting the company, violate the employment contract, commit a criminal act, miss three consecutive workdays without cause, or have serious damage or gross misconduct against the employer. If gmmtv has a clause in their contract about hate speech, they would be legally expected to give a warning and then have just cause if the employee repeated the breaking of work place rules. If any of the hate speech constituted legal harassment or defamation, then with criminal charges the company would have just cause to immediately terminate employment without warning. They could also terminate an employee for damage to the company’s brand because of content posted online—they would just need to document it, and most company’s would also provide some kind of warning about this before they actually terminated anyone.
Joss and Justin are two different cases. Likely, Justin was still in his probationary period, which can last up to 119 days (I’m not counting the days since he was announced since I don’t even know if that’s when his contract started nor if that’s how long gmmtv’s probationary period is). Basically, it’s legally easier to fire someone during this period. Joss probs wasn’t. But also, the manner of their social media issues is different. Justin reposted hateful content, which then becomes an expression of his ‘speech.’ Joss, from what I recall, followed right-wing profiles (alongside left-wing profiles), but his reposts of them and quote he included in his bio were all vague, inspirational quotes. Feel free to correct me if I’m misremembering. So, Joss didn’t actually produce any evidence that I know of that would qualify as hate speech. That matters in terms of the company having legal grounds for termination.
Lots of y’all hating on gmmtv as a corporation but then want it to go beyond its rights as a corporation to fire its workers without any consideration about the ramifications of that. It’s not that I think hate speech should be tolerated, nor that people who discriminate and spread hateful views toward the lgbt+ population (among others) should be allowed to profit off of it. I am just sensitive to how the limits and procedural laws imposed on corporations protect workers, and giving more power to a companies for them to deal with workers based on political views without actual damaging behavior, just because we (fairly) disagree with those political views creates a ripe environment for other kinds of discrimination that will likely turn to target the marginalized workers.
Yeah, Justin is young, and he’s learning his lesson the hard way. Such is life. It sends a clear signal to aspiring actors. I, too, hope that if he hasn’t already, he finds his way out of the incel culture that his social media suggests he joined. Just a yucky reminder about what’s out there and that these QL actors are not immune and cocooned inside a QL bubble.
I also would recommend people learn more about Thai politics. This instance was obvious because Justin was participating in English language global conservative movements. But would we be able to spot conservative Thai rhetoric? Like, do y’all know why the actors are posting themselves voting and gmmtv has to put out statements when the actors can’t vote because they’re away on scheduled business? Why does it matter for Thai lgbt rights that some of the ql shows depict rebirth and some specifically choose not to? Why was My Romance Scammer especiallu relevant to the discourse around lgbt marriage rights discourse in the country? I’m just saying.
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