He Came Out As Gay In the 80s
This is a wonderful, fantastic story about a gay man who came out in the 80s, but only after a good deal of thought, back when most gay people were not coming out in corporate America. Tony worked in corporate in the 90s and he never could have come out then. For most gay men, coming out prior to 2010 was almost impossible. So considering everything that was happening in the 80s, including AIDS, this guy was brave.
She told me that I would not be fired and went on to say what an outstanding job I had been doing in my short tenure. I worked for that company for 18 years. At the time that I came out there was no such thing as Diversity and Inclusion. For many of my colleagues, I was the first openly gay person they ever met.
Here’s the rest. Once again, and I know I say this all the time, but here’s one more thing that straight people will never understand about being gay. They never had to hide the fact that they are straight in their workplaces. And, just for the record and for all the clueless people out there, there are still gay people in the closet at work right now in the year 2020. We’ve made progress, but there hasn’t been a magic fix yet. I wouldn’t lie to you about that.

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