By Mitchell Byers, Boulder Daily Camera
The screen saver on Michelle Hurn’s office computer at Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Hospital has always been a reflection of her life. Photos of her running, her pets, her wife. So after the 2016 election, Hurn put up a photo of the gay pride flag waving in the wind as her new screen saver.
“For me, it was empowering,” said Hurn, who said she first came out as lesbian about nine years ago at the age of 24. “I don’t do things in life to say, ‘Show the haters.’ For me, it was honoring who I am. I’m proud, and I’m not going to pretend I’m not something.”
It was never intended to be a public display of defiance. But then, Hurn said she was told to take the image off her computer. Hurn said that was not something she could stand for and resigned.
“People might say, ‘Oh, it’s just a screen saver, get over it,'” Hurn said. “But it is so much more than that.”
BCH issued a statement on the situation Wednesday.
“An employee recently resigned from her position related to use of a shared workplace computer and a dispute with a coworker,” the statement read. “The employee who resigned was never threatened with termination by any member of the management team or Human Resources Department at BCH. The employee was offered the opportunity to have formal or informal mediation with her coworker but declined that option and chose to resign.”
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