Work?

I'm out at both jobs, but then again, they're both quite liberal and laid-back. At one job, there were already a couple out gay guys there, so obviously, no issue. The other place didn't have any, and I was apparently the first. I came out in a rather strange way, and I wish I could remember exactly how it went. I was typing something up in this largish room, with my back to the rest of the room, where most of the rest of the staff were discussing something or other. One of them said something, and I wish I could remember what it was - it was over a decade ago. It wasn't an anti-gay comment, I don't think. It may have been something like "Well, we can still do that. Maybe the gays will like it." At which point I stopped typing, turned around and said, "I'll like what?" They all sort of stopped and looked at me, sort of half-shocked and half-shamefaced. I just smiled and went back to typing.

No problems at all after that.

Lex

 

I kind of just started with the people I was closest to at work and it went from there. There is kind of this core group of gay people in my department so it wasn't unprecedented. There's like five of us and one guy-soon-to-be-woman who happens to sit next to me, so It's not difficult at all for me. Actually, work has become far more comfortable, and I'm in a warehouse south of the bible belt!

Most of us are from up north or out west though. Just do what you're comfortable with. Start with a couple of people and move on from there if you feel the need. Feel out the situation first, you know, cover your ass. (no pun intended.)

 

I'm out at work and really nothing has changed. No one treats me any differently.

We talk openly about it and no one has a problem. We tend to be a pretty close group and talk about all kinds of personal stuff. We also tend to bust each others balls all the time, so as you can imagine it has become a new source of jokes, which about half come from me. None of it mean spirited or anything. Everyone has made it a point to let me know that if it does bother me they will stop. Which is nice, but I told them that it is not words that bother me it is the intent behind them. Yesterday I called a coworker a dictator and he called me a dick taster. That got a nice hearty LOL from me.

So I would say it has been a positive experience for me.

I decided that I wanted to be out at work because I spend more time with those folks than I do my friends and family. I knew that being able to be myself during the day would be an important part of accepting myself.

 

I'm out in college, but I wasn't out in the job I was working on my year out. The main reason I didn't come out then was because several of my co-workers were extremely homophobic - short-tempered gym addict Polish Catholic men. I wouldn't have felt comfortable coming out in that environment.

 

When I came out at the restaurant I worked at, I received mostly positive feedback. All the hostesses suddenly got all up in my grill, asking who I thought was hot, if I liked their outfits, etc. Kind of awkward since I have weird taste in both clothes and boys.
Everyone else was also like, "seriously? that's cool with me, man." and such.
Revealing a secret to someone you don't know that often establishes a foundation of trust and true friendship. I became so much closer to my co-workers after I came out to them.