Originally Posted by JohnBurke

I said nothing of taking offense.

I can tell you that when applying for a particular government assignment, I didn't ask for preferential points under any category. When I followed up on the application, I was asked if I wanted to update my application to show anything that qualified with "preference points." No, I didn't. Was I gay? Female? Ethnic? Veteran? Handicapped? I said I declined to cite for preference points. Thanks for applying, but without those points, not a chance. I was by far the most qualified applicant they had, far and away. I was told "If you were a handicapped lesbian veteran, we'd have a look."

Like I said, we can go on all day long with personal experience upon personal experience and observation, over many, many years.