A buddy of mine interviewed for a security job in records management with the Canadian government. He was asked all kinds of questions like that. He found out later that the answers themselves were unimportant, they wanted to see how you reacted to the question to find out if you had skeletons in your closet that made you a risk for blackmail or other coercion that would compromise your security clearance.
So if they said “Have you ever had sex with a goat?” and you answered “Oh, hell yeah. Haven’t you? They’re so sexy!” That was fine. But if they asked “Have you ever cheated on your spouse?” and you answered “Yes” but you got all shifty-eyed and looked uncomfortable, that was bad.
But that was also a government security kind of thing. Anybody know if those kind of questions would be legal in a corporate security environment in the private sector?
I have secret clearance with the Canadian Government. I was never asked anything like that. Top secret clearance might be a bit different, but I doubt it. I think it’s just a more detailed investigation into your background.
I don’t know anything about the job he was applying for (it was 10 years ago or so). All I know was that he would have had to move to Ottawa and that it had something to do with having access to important documents. ETA: His education had something to do with policy development.
I remember he was really excited about the possibility of a lie detector test. I that he told me what some of the questions were: “How many times do you lie in a day?” and “Have you ever had sex with a man?” and “Have you ever taken illegal drugs?” and that after the interview or test (don’t remember which), someone came back in the room and asked very sternly “Is there something you forgot to tell us?”
Hm. Doing a Google search on it, it looks like CSIS and the RCMP do polygraph tests, but I’m pretty sure I’d have remembered if he was trying to get a job with either of those, because it would have been really cool.
Wow, the US government doesn’t even do that. I had (US) Top Secret in my military intelligence battalion. In fact, no one ever talked to me, but shadowy government dudes went and asked my family and friends questions about me. Of course at age 18, there wasn’t really a whole lot of bad stuff I could have done that young.
I don’t think I’ve ever accidentally outed myself. I very intentionally out myself wherever reasonable. If I’m having a conversation with someone I try to make mention of a bf or activity that would lead them to believe I’m gay.
I unintentionally took part in outing a straight guy as gay one time. My ex-bf and I were apart for a while and he had to got to New York for a meeting. He stayed at a friends place who is very straight but his MFA specializing in poetry and his metro-sexual behavior lead many to believe he’s gay.
I drove down to meet my bf and sex ensued while his friend was at work. His friend lived in a tiny apartment with a shared common bathroom. Overhearing conversations or encountering the couple people on the floor was a regular thing. I only stayed for one night while my BF stayed multiple. I was never seen by the other people on the floor but my BF was seen several times.
On of the people apparently overheard me and my BF getting it on and assumed it was my bf and his friend getting it on. A week or so after I and my bf had left he was essentially congratulated on scoring with his new found bf. He tried to explain he wasn’t involved but the guy didn’t seem to buy it, then to make matters worse, during that conversation, he was on his way out to play softball and the floor mate asked about what league he played in. He simply made up a name rather then have to further explain why he was playing in the gay/lesbian league.
He moved out long before convincing anyone he was really straight.
I had to out myself as a scifi geek on my first day at a new job, which started 3 days before a convention I was going to. By the time I got back, everyone in the office knew, including the owner, who came and asked me all about it, himself being a Star Trek fan and reader of science fiction.
I had a friend unintentionally out a colleague to me in a way that was pretty hilarious.
She is from Taiwan and she was discussing another Taiwanese friend she wanted me to meet. We were discussing having Thanksgiving dinner together.
‘‘He’s a Ph.D. student in sociology at Rutgers. He has a lot of knowledge in LGBT studies and things like that.’’
‘‘Oh, he sounds really interesting, I’d love to meet him.’’
(careful silence). ‘‘Sometimes people go into that field because they have a … personal interest in gay and lesbian things. But my personal feeling is that you should give them the freedom to share this information with who they feel comfortable with. So I will leave it up to my friend to tell you that he is gay.’’
I about died laughing. She was utterly serious. I’m still laughing thinking about it.
I was making a speech in front of a Sociology class once and accidentally outed myself when I’m not even gay. The topic was regarding gay marriage and apparently, as one of my friends later told me, during the speech when talking about gay people I accidentally used the word “we”. I don’t even remember doing it. I hate public speaking so I can imagine that I did use that out of nervousness. It didn’t help that I was defensive about it when he asked me later on
My boyfriend once outed my to my new boss. They’d worked together, when my bf was still closeted, and hadn’t seen each other in a few years. About a week before he was going to take over as my new manager, they ran into each other at an industry convention. New boss says he’s about to start as a manager at my company, and my guy blurts out, “Oh, my boyfriend Miller works there!”