On an overly simplistic level, Kevin Lister is acting like a man my father knew who applied for a position with a company and he was about to be given the position until he found out that the company car he'd be getting was a Mitsubishi Magna. The interviewer said, "Do you have any questions?" He replied, "Is this Magna negotiable?" And the interviewer replied, "What do you mean?" And he said, "Well, do I have to have a Magna, can I have something else?" And the interviewer replied, "No, every car in our fleet is a Magna." He said he didn't want the position. Regardless of what his opinion of a Mitsubishi Magna was, it didn't cost him anything to fuel it up and it was maintained by the company. I remember a kid I went to school with who told a story that I find questionable, that he knew a guy who was working for a company who demanded among others that his company car be switched from a Falcon to a Commodore because he refused to drive a Falcon as he claimed they were unreliable. To which I say, I knew something about the man he was referring to and I would hardly have taken him as a credible source, and even if, as my mother said, he travelled with his work, if his car was unreliable, the company would be paying to get it repaired not him.

What Kevin Lister was doing was the equivalent of both these men and a few sales reps whom my father managed who complained about being given Ford Falcons as company cars and my father would inspect the cars and find that they were absolutely filthy. Some had ashtrays full of cigarette filters, even. My father said to some of them, "You better come into my office and call your wives to come and collect you or get taxis home." "Why?" "Well, if it's too much effort for you to keep the cars clean, you can leave them here of a Friday afternoon, and a detailer will come in and wash them and you can collect them Monday morning." A few of them smartened up their ideas, but one was sacked for something else. Another such rep claimed that the rear doors on his Falcon used to fly open when he went around corners and Dad said to him, "Okay, leave your keys on the desk and I'll get you another car." And the guy said, "No, no, another Falcon will have the same issue." And Dad said to him, "Okay, you've got two choices. You can either go out there and drive the Falcon you were given and do what you're employed to do, or you leave your keys on the desk and hand in your notice of intention to quit." He chose the latter.

Kevin Lister was employed to teach math and in my opinion, what he did was the equivalent of being given a position in a company but he didn't like the company car so he trashed it and didn't bother washing and cleaning it to make a point. Okay, if you work for a company and you have a car of your own, be it a family car, a car that you drive once a week, or, you enjoy camping, and you have a 4WD or van that you take out camping, and you only have one garage or carport and you keep your own car in the garage and leave the company car on the driveway, I'd say, fair enough. But if you trash the company car because you don't like the make or model, well, you don't deserve to keep your position. The same applies here. If Kevin Lister couldn't give the respect to a student he probably saw about once a day, then he doesn't deserve to be a teacher. He wasn't being asked to march in a Pride Demonstration, he wasn't being asked to Wear Purple, all he was asked to do was affirm a trans student's identity, and I see that as being no different to if a student's name is Susan and they ask to be called Sue.