The Hell We’ve Been Through
Traumatized and penalized
“There was a police officer standing on the center of the sidewalk and he was telling people ‘Wait.’ He would look up and say, ‘Okay, run!’ And so, a group of people would then go and run across the street. As soon I as I got across the street, I turned around and looked up and was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I had no idea of what had happened. I knew that it was a fire and I thought in my mind that it must have been a boiler that exploded. I crossed the street and I started to walk away from the building and I just remembered looking back and then realizing that whatever happened it was on my floors. My company had 93 to 100 in Tower 1 and the first plane went right in at 95. So, it went right into my floors.” – MJ Dougherty’s Oral History
MJ Dougherty’s employer, the Harrisburg office of Marsh and McLennan, selected her to travel to New York City for business purposes on September 10, 2001. She was held up by a phone call from Christy, her partner, in the Marriott World Trade Center when the first plane struck the North tower on September 11. MJ escaped, running through the debris field of building pieces and body parts. She saw people jump from the Towers to their death.
MJ, like so many others, stayed closeted at her workplace during this period. Christy unintentionally outed MJ at work when hearing the news of the 9/11 attacks, she called the Harrisburg office and asked about MJ’s whereabouts. When MJ’s supervisor asked who she was, Christy indicated she was MJ’s partner. MJ expressed grief that her relationship with her employer “completely fell apart after that.” Suffering from PTSD, her supervisor denied her the free counseling that was offered to all other Marsh and McLennan employees. Her supervisor gave her a poor review, and denied her a raise and a bonus in 2002. She appealed this decision to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission but was denied due to the fact that lesbians were not considered a protected class.
MJ Dougherty’s employer, the Harrisburg office of Marsh and McLennan, selected her to travel to New York City for business purposes on September 10, 2001. She was held up by a phone call from Christy, her partner, in the Marriott World Trade Center when the first plane struck the North tower on September 11. MJ escaped, running through the debris field of building pieces and body parts. She saw people jump from the Towers to their death.
MJ, like so many others, stayed closeted at her workplace during this period. Christy unintentionally outed MJ at work when hearing the news of the 9/11 attacks, she called the Harrisburg office and asked about MJ’s whereabouts. When MJ’s supervisor asked who she was, Christy indicated she was MJ’s partner. MJ expressed grief that her relationship with her employer “completely fell apart after that.” Suffering from PTSD, her supervisor denied her the free counseling that was offered to all other Marsh and McLennan employees. Her supervisor gave her a poor review, and denied her a raise and a bonus in 2002. She appealed this decision to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission but was denied due to the fact that lesbians were not considered a protected class.
