Are you OUT at work?

[TWolf]

I'm completely out at work... though I'm butch enough to trigger even the faultest gardar... totally funny when my last manager would get flustered everytime he'd call me "sir".... I work in a very accepting environment though... my computer has a pic collage of my gal, her son, and my son proudly displayed... and we attend company events as a couple...

[Just_G]

For me, the question is when am I NOT out, ANYWHERE I go?

I just started a new job at a huge engineering firm....I am positive that not one person that has seen me come and go from the building thinks I am straight.

Even though I didn't have to "come out" at work, there is still an awkward uneasiness around all of my female co-workers....not on my part though. I try to make conversation, but they just kind of turn and walk away. They don't make eye contact, and when it is time for a meeting that I don't know about, they leave me sitting in my cubicle and send one of the guys to get me.

I can honestly say that some days I wish I blended in and could go on about my business without the awkwardness. That will never happen with me.

It's funny, there is another thread on BFP about femmes having to come out all the time and how they are not noticed, and most of the time, I so wish I was NOT noticed so easily. It's like when you have straight hair and want curly hair or vice versa...lol

[genghisfawn]

I don't come out at a new job until I have firm friends. Right now I'm contracted to another company, working full-time on their site. When someone asks me if I'm seeing anyone or married or something, I respond with a subtle, "Eventually!" and a smile.

However, I had lunch with another division's manager when I first started with my company and it came up that I'd been engaged. She said at one point after that, "Don't be offended, but are you a lesbian?"

I was FLOORED. Not because she asked, because I don't really care, but that she actually read me as gay! Could it have been the sweatervest and blouse combo over no-nonsense trousers and shoes? I just said, "Yes... why, do I, you know, look gay or something?"

She said, "No, not at all. I have a sixth sense for these things."

She and I are totally friends and we're totally going shopping this week.

[apretty]

Yes, as I'm asked about my personal life I always correct the inevitable presumed heterosexuality--I don't offer personal information generally because it doesn't pertain to the job (and as I have a supervisory position I like a little distance), but I will share bits of who I am, as appropriate.

[Novelafemme]

Like, apretty, I am out at work (and everywhere) but I keep my personal life private as much as I can. At one point I had several coworkers as friends on facebook but I found it very awkward when they knew about my active social life outside of work and would comment on what I did over the weekend. I am a total contradiction when it comes to my privacy, lol. So, I "unfriended" them on facebook and keep my friend list to only those I know pretty darned well (and family).

I have pictures of Katy and I up in my office, as well as pics of my girls and other friends and family, and sometimes new people stop by my office and I catch them looking at the photos and then looking at me as the little light bulb goes off in their brains.

[Quintease]

Not really, but then I am married to a man. Generally I like to scope out the situation before I come out, but sometimes it still doesn't help. I've come out in the past and experienced harassment (always from other women). I've also chosen not to come out in other jobs and regretted it.

My husbands not out to anyone but his boss. Foolishly he added one of his workmates to his facebook, only to have to 'out' me as bisexual after we made a mistake with his privacy settings. He has since deleted that person.

[SaltyButch]

I am totally out at work and have been in all the places that I have worked as an adult. It is not something that happens on the first day you walk in but after you have been able to gauge people's responses. I have been fortunate enough that my peers accept me and in fact have been educated to some degree because I am open to discussing most anything they may be wondering about.

[The JD]

I'm out at work. I just posted a pic of me at work- it's kind of obvious, I think...heh. But I've also addressed it with my coworkers at first indirectly, by not pretending to be single if I'm not and using the correct pronouns (and first name) when referring to my girlfriend... but also directly- once some see that I'm comfortable with it, they get comfortable enough to ask more.

The strangest example of this is the 60 year old coworker who said to me, "I heard a DJ using this word on the radio this morning, and I think it might be a gay thing. What's a 'carpet muncher'?"

After I spit my coffee out and got my laughter under control, I told her.

[TheresaD]

I sure hope so because I am f*cking my boss. Have been for nearly 7 years.

[MaggieBluIze]

In every fabulous way possible!!!!!

I it!!!!

Turns out so is my supervisor, his supervisor and many of my coworkers!!!!!!! *big grin*

[stephfromMIT]

I not working yet, but I am out with my fellow grad students/lab colleagues. If I don't "ping" your gaydar, you have no gaydar.

[Mrs Arcstriker]

I am out to my entire family, my friends, my employers and my neighbors...That said, I am NOT out to my residents of my nursing home. Some "get it" when they see Arc come in to work, but I did have one elderly man ask if Arc was my son, and another with expressive aphagia just gave me a knowing giggle...I have no expectation that my residents need to know, nor do I have an expectation that if they did they would condone.

At my job at the college, I don't tell my students per se, but they figure it out when they meet the family.

I've been OUT since I left my marriage to my ex-husband in late-1999, and thus far I've had not one scrap of negativity...even though I came "out" in a very predominantly Catholic community where I have lived for 33 years.

[Lady Pamela]

It would be extremely hard for me to do that considering my clientell are my own...My other job is also child based and probably about 200 to 300 children each event. Ha!

But in years before now at work..Yes I was also out when in medical field positions.

But should someone ask..Sure I would most definately tell them the truth..Like one on my client I have a session with.

.

[cinnamongrrl]

No.... I work for an uber christian....I try not to discuss religion and politics with clients anyhow...but it DOES give me a tickle being on BFP while I'm at work....I'm just naughty like that

[SleepyButch]

I am totally out at work and I love it!

[Breathless]

Kind of.. I work outside .. sort of.. JK.. Absolutely.. I could only be more out if I was flying a flag behind the car around town doing pickups. .

[Greco]

Yes, always.

Greco

[Talon]

Nope. And I do prefer it that way. My sexuality is no one's business and has nothing at all to do with what I do for a living. My performance is what matters.

[jules5041]

i work for a small clinic in Little Rock. There are several of us that are gay and out that work here. It is a very relaxed, positive enviroment. Most of my co-workers are also accepting and tolerant so that is also a plus. I am lucky as I know many places are not as liberal as my place of employment is.

Jules

[Duchess]

Absolutely