I couldn’t be in a workplace where I couldn’t be out to begin with. I think I’ve had a rainbow flag on all the desks in all the desk jobs I’ve had.
I’ve had some homophobic moments, particularly (ironically) when I was working at Dairy Queen (the boss talked about “fags” to my face, someone jokingly accused me of pedophilia, and one cow orker completely flipped out when I mentioned my bf and ran from the room.) Also, my ex once got fired on trumped-up stealing charges (i.e. they had proof he didn’t do it, which he saw, and they fired him anyway) probably because of that giant homophobe of a manager of his.
Anyway, right now in my office, I have a huge rainbow flag over my window, cute boy pics on the walls, a disco ball over my computer, and gay porn and Dykes To Watch Out For in the bookcases. Of course, I work at home
Will “butch” and “surly” just be the attitude? Or are you growing some stubble and having a cigar in your mouth too?
I just found out the Gorgeous Gay Guy[sup]TM[/sup] at my workplace is going as a stripper. How in the underworld am I going to get any work done? :eek:
What does a pride bracelet look like?
I’m one of those people who doesn’t notice other people’s clothing, etc., so I’m thinking surely one could have slid under my radar before.
I’ve had to come out as straight… to a lot of people… including my mom. I attract gay coworkers, which is fine by me, as most of my best friends through the years have been gay. A lot of gay guys try to shock me with graphic stories of sexual exploits, but I’m pretty much unshockable, so they like me even more afterwards.
“Are you sure honey? Cause if you are gay, that’s okay” at a time when I was not interested in girls at all.
I’m a tomboy, who did have a “i like girls” phase, but more just to look at. I’m officially bisexual (I would consider dating either sex), but I’m in a long-term monogamous relationship with a boy, so no girl sex for me.
Like many others, I am casually out at the office. It does not come up in an interview, though since I tend to wear my rainbow ring at all times, and some clue-enabled people have figured it out from that. I have pictures of my partner on my desk, I’ve had a small rainbow flag at my desk at previous workplaces (not at my current workplace since I’m contracting and am trying to keep my personal belongings to a minimum to make it easier to take it all home if the contract suddenly gets terminated, which happens in this industry), and I do not change pronouns when I talk about what my partner and I do outside of work. Honestly, it never takes long for people to figure things out, and if there’s a rumor mill talking about me, it’s never gotten back to me. It’s just another aspect of my life that people find out by talking socially with me, at the same level as the fact that I run sci-fi cons, write fiction, enjoy baking, and like to eat out a lot.
IANAGD but I have something else to be “out” or “not out” about in the workplace — the schizzy lib thing.
When I was a social worker I spoke about it because it was at least somewhat relevant to the sphere of social work. When my next major job was in an unrelated industry (database design for a tech company reselling design software to fashion companies) I didn’t go through all that and then one day sent an email with a screen shot attachment to my bosses with the subject line “Check this out!”.
Problem a) No file attachment. I guess I made the screen shot, composed the email, and sent it without attaching the damn JPEG.
Problem b) I sent it from my home email account, which has my web site referenced in the default signature line.
Problem c) Stemming logically from A and B, the bosses, upon receiving an otherwise empty email titled “Check this out!” consisting in its entirety of my sig and link, clicked the link.
So by 9:05 that morning I was very much out and we had an interesting conversation. Two nervous bosses and one who shrugged and said “Yeah I figured you forgot to attach something”.
My rule is that if it becomes relevant — either to the work, to workplace policy, or to conversations as they just happen to come up at work — I’m going to talk about it. I don’t get all Alliance for the Mentally Ill / politically correct on someone who says “This is driving me mad” or “I think my computer is schizophrenic, yesterday it worked well and today it’s crashed five times” but if the subjects of psychiatry or forced treatment or psych medication come up that’s a different thing and I’m likely to insert my perspective into any such conversation.
It hasn’t happened at my current gig and it’s always disconcerting, like waiting for the bell to ring or the shoe to drop. There’s always the possibility of another unplanned outing like the one described above and I’d always rather control the circumstances under which it becomes known to coworkers and bosses. (In particular I don’t want it coming out as a fact unaccompanied by the political fact that I’m open and activist about it rather than hiding it!)
And of course Gaudere’s Law, Codicil #37 or something, says that when you tell a tale of an email with a missing attachment you’ll do so via a post with a nonworking link in it.
I have no idea what they know or don’t know about me at work, but since I’ve marched in parades and written letters to editors, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few people knew.
Nice thing is, I don’t think it would raise so much as an eyebrow.
No, I’m a FileMaker geek and I was hired to take over maintenance and development of a vertical-market shrinkwrapped FileMaker solution called LineView and to develop another called SpecView.
Hey! How come the “Bi-Pride” bracelets are those hideous shades of pink and purple, when the gay pride ones are nice rainbow colors? It’s discrimination, I tell you!
