Obvious, or Headless?
Just under a year ago, the lease for our old office space expired and we were sent off looking desperately for new space. We now have our new digs, and we had additional space to boot, so we set out subletting two of our offices to a small firm willing to share space with us. S.W., a solo practitioner, eventually came to occupy the space with his assitant.
S.W. frequently makes comments and jokes about the fact that I'm at my computer all the time; he sometimes jokes that he doesn't actually see me move from the identical position in front of my machine. One evening, he and T. were talking outside my door, possibly probably intending for me to overhear:
S.W.: See, there he is again, staring at that screen!
T.: Yeah, he tends to do that. Don't let him fool you. He's not working as hard as he might appear to be.
S.W.: What, are you saying he's looking at naked ladies or something?
T.: .... You don't know Dennis very well, do you?
It's at this point that I burst out laughing. To his credit, S.W. picked up the hint quickly.
S.W.: Oh, does he play for the other team?
T.: Uh, yeah.
I have the luxury of being out at work and it doesn't matter a whit to anyone here. But it's times like this I have to laugh, if for no other reason than sometimes I feel like I'm just so freaking obviously gay that it's a wonder that people actually don't notice.
But apparently some people don't pick up on my subtle homo-vibes. Which is also cool.
5 comments:
The same thing happens to me too! Every once in awhile, I'll be hit on by a girl at a bar or party and I have to stop and laugh as well. Does that make my butch? Me?? Nah :P
oops. does that make ME butch
"freaking obviously gay"
Ha. Ha. I'm not sure why I think that's funny. I just imagined you wearing a speacial t-shirt or something, or blinking lights.
That is too funny.
At my job, women are constantly asking me how long I've been married, because they see the ring on my finger. As I'm not a 'flaming queen,' they must just assume that I'm straight. The other day a couple of female co-workers were hounding me about it. I told them that I wasn't married and, after a few moments of confused silence, one of them told me that I shouldn't wear a ring if I was single and trying to attracted "the ladies." I told her "thanks for the advice."
My significant other, however, is a bit more obviously gay, and he never gets asked anything about his personal life. We've come to the conclusion that his co-workers suspect he's gay, and would probably rather not hear about it. What I'd give for some of that, as opposed to the curiosity seekers who constantly ask me questions about the "wife" they assume that I have.
Oh well. At least you're out at work and it's cool with everyone!
Take care.
It's much easier to go about life as open as I am. First, it keeps me from ever having to lie about my personal life. Second, I can be really outgoing that way anyway, so I would hate to have to play the pronoun game at some point in talking to co-workers. Third, given the politicization (?) of homosexuality lately, I feel it's important to be as unashamedly out as possible to present a human face to challenge the right-wing craziness.
Post a Comment