Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Diane Litke has responded to a gay Plano doctor’s misogynistic comments on the pay gap between male and female physicians. His comments were originally printed in the Dallas Medical Journal.
“Female physicians do not work as hard and do not see as many patients as male physicians,” Dr. Gary Tigges wrote. “This is because they choose to, or they simply don’t want to be rushed, or they don’t want to work the long hours.”
Tigges implies he stuffs as many patients into his schedule as possible. Litke, a personal friend of mine who has treated lots of other friends of mine, spends as much time as necessary to provide the best care.
Tigges continued his tirade about female doctors, explaining why it’s fair: “Nothing needs to be ‘done’ about this unless female physicians actually want to work harder and put in the hours,” Tigges wrote. “If not, they should be paid less.”
Litke works long hours. And hours Tigges wouldn’t consider working in his internal medicine practice. She’s called to the emergency room to operate at all hours and even on days when she’s not on call.
He has apologized for the comments, said they were taken out of context and issued additional statements.
KTVT Channel 11 interviewed Litke for her response.
She called his comments ridiculous and chauvinistic. Accepting his apology, she said it pointed out the pay gap between men and women in all fields and hoped his comments would spark discussion that would lead to solutions for the problem.
However, before he was able to delete his Twitter account, some other disturbing tweets were found that indicate more than just a disagreement on how hard he works compared to his female coworkers. In response to a tweet from Debra Messing about Trump’s immigration policy, Tigges wrote, “Poor dip-shit ignorant Debbie. Keep acting…..it’s obviously the only thing you actually know. Tell your Mexican immigrant maid hello for me.”
But he’s not just a misogynist, he’s also a racist. Responding to a picture of white House Republicans he tweeted, “Great pic and as diverse as the House needs to be!”
— David Taffet
The tweets:
