Wednesday 4 July 2012

The elephant in the room



I work in IT, or ICT as they call it now, since it includes communications as well. It's all very excited (or geeky) I know. My manager has 49 people to report to him. That's quite a group, especially when we occasionally go to the pub. We manage to populate most of the venue we go to and we create quite some noise there. Most of them are really nice people; however I am the only 'gay in the village'! All the rest have girlfriends, fiances or wives that they sometimes bring along or mention quite often. And since we are in IT, the vast majority are male. I think that there are only 3 women in the team. One of which was an old co-worker of mine from my previous job. 

So, in such a heterosexual and geeky group, I was reluctant to talk about 'J', before I tested the waters. However, the very first day I joined, I heard from a team leader of the group a nasty comment about lesbians. It was one of these ridiculously unfunny 'Beavis & Butt head' quality jokes that you hear from a developer with no social skills whatsoever. Some similar stupid jokes were heard during the following months as well. So, I decided against talking about my personal life, especially at the beginning. I wanted to pass my probation period, get to know these people better and then start opening up.



A couple of weeks ago we were again in the pub. After a couple, or more, of drinks they started talking about the only female developer we have to another developer of my age. She wasn't present at that outing and they knew that he was single and they were trying to set him up with her. Apart from me, everybody else taking part in that discussion were either married or engaged. He was being a bit reluctant about her (can't blame him), but it then occurred to me that I was excluded from the available candidates for her. They didn't ask me about my relationship status and they didn't offer to set me up with her. So, I either do look gayer than I thought or the ex-co-worker spilled the beans about me and some people already know.


So, last week, when we were at the pub again, a colleague and his fianc←, also working on the same company but in a different department, asked me about my holidays. They asked me who I am going with, a girlfriend or friends. My reply was: my boyfriend. Then came that small pause, you know, the few seconds more than normal that it took them to reply something like 'that's nice'! I briefly told them about JJ and mentioned the fact that it's not out in the open yet because of that team leader, I mentioned earlier. Oh, I am going to tell him eventually, just not yet! I was glad I've talked to them even if I now know that a secret known by 3 at least co-workers, is not a secret anymore.


However, even after all this time, there is a small triumphant feeling when successfully coming out to people even if they are simple work colleagues.

8 comments:

  1. Well done, Nik. What I'm surprised about is that with roughly 45 men in your department, you are the only queer one. Maybe a few others are deeply closeted, and perhaps married to women?

    It will be cool when you take JJ to your first department outing. Be sure to take pics.

    I'm starting a new job in a new city in a couple of weeks. Greg asked me if and how I was going to come out. I said I was going to put a big picture of him on my desk with sparklers and rainbows! Maybe I'll set off a glitter bomb in my first hour there. That should pretty much clue people in that I'm queer ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if 1 in 10 should be gay, according to statistics, then 3 more should be gay. I just don't know them...
      Hmmmm. Glitter bomb? That doesn't so bad. lol... Yes, maybe a picture might be better

      Delete
  2. Coming out at work is always a tricky one. It takes a while to figure out the politics and by then, you can think you've left it too long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm happy I did it now and I will probably keep on coming out to more colleagues over the next weeks. I believe it should be fine. Otherwise, I sue them... :-)

      Delete
  3. I've had a similar-ish conversation a few times. Given a language barrier, I think ppl believe they've misheard me a few times. A few weeks at dinner i kept mentioning DJ by name, and someone asked "Who's DJ? your brother?" I said no, explained, and we moved on. ;-)

    I did just pull a completely passive-aggressive coming out via facebook. I posted a link about anderson cooper and made some parallels to my own coming out, but made this visible ONLY to my coworkers in this new lab. I got one "like" out of five, so i know they've seen it. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't have colleagues in facebook. I keep it for friends. I believe linkedin is for colleagues. I try to keep them separate. Good for you for talking about DJ

      Delete
  4. Nice story. Truth is, at least for me, we are always coming out to others - in every aspect of life. Society makes all kinds of assumptions about us and sometimes we have to set them straight (so to say) about who we are. Good job. Hope all continues to go well for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. To be honest, coming out to people does bring them closer (I think). It's all not that bad

      Delete