God, I'm sorry for what you went through. And to clarify, again: I was joking to make a point! I wasn't defending the comic book store. I am not actually getting any of my coworkers fired. I'm saying: it's ABSURD to get someone fired because they're offended by your jokes or comments. It would be absurd for me to get…

That's about free speech at schools, which are GOVERNMENT entities. Also, by the way, even schools can censor sexually harassing speech (symbolic or actual). You really need to read this stuff because right now, you look like an idiot.

You don't have a right to say whatever you want at work. If you don't want to get fired, you probably want to increase your understanding of applicable local and federal laws. If you do want to get fired, you might be simultaneously opening yourself to civil suits. If you're just trolling, well, meh. I was bored.

No. Here is the text of the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of…

You're forgetting about sexual harassment. You have the right not to be sexually harassed in the workplace. Any sexual or gender-related acts or statements that are unwanted and which make an employee uncomfortable is sexually harassment.

"We feel bad that she had to LASH OUT this way."

Clearly you weren't actually paying attention in any of those places or you would understand that freedom of speech is not the same as freedom from the consequences of speech.

Oh wait, no you haven't because creating a work environment wherein a worker does not feel safe (say telling your only female co-worker that a particular room is called the "rape room") is not protected by the right to free speech because all workers have the (far more important) right to a safe workplace. You only…

Because you have no free speech rights in the workplace. The 1st Amendment only restricts the government from taking action against you. Your employer is free to restrict your speech however they see fit if you are not under any other protective agreement that spells out other circumstances specifically, such as a…

In all fairness, that's a legitimate issue to have. I'm not sure about in the US, but in Canada hostile work environments are covered under our Human Rights legislation to protect people from this sort of shenaniganry.

right to free speech does trump right to be comfortable, and that is a fact that is on record as the law of the land in this country.

Everybody who made similar comments: I was joking! I was making fun of how the comic book store handled the situation. I'm not really going to get anyone fired! What I'm going to do instead is what the people at the comic book store should have done: respect my coworkers' boundaries and try my hardest to refrain from…

yes, and it used to be acceptable for racism and stereotypes and other behaviors that were " part of culture" 30 years ago. How do you feel about gay marriage???

oh hai there! the First Amendment means the GOVERNMENT can't tell you what not to say. It doesn't say your EMPLOYER or other folks around you can't tell you what not to say (and hey, other folks around you can't even enforce it, so, uh, learn to live with it, dipshit).

Because "lonely geek wank-room" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

I can't agree with that. What if a bunch of white coworkers are laughing around the water cooler, and whenever a black coworker asks them what's so funny, they go, "Uh...don't worry about it..." and scamper off? It's possible that it's a coincidence; maybe they only have two black coworkers who are both gigantic…

Shared this with a friend from across the country who actually works at a comics shop and also happens to be black, and has many amusing stories about casual nerd racism. He had a pretty good comment I'm going to paraphrase here.

Him: "Okay, so if my shop had a room that everyone called 'dead nigger storage', think…

WHY THE FUCK DO YOU CALL A ROOM IN YOUR COMIC BOOK STORE A "RAPE ROOM?

First Amendment only applies to state action. Creating a sexually hostile work environment is against the law.

Exactly! I'm not saying calling a sketchy room the "rape room" is a totally awesome and hilarious thing to do, but the real issue is how they reacted when she asked them to stop. Another major issue is the implicit misogyny when a bunch of men fire a woman because they think she's overreacting to a rape joke.