Coming Out At Work Via Humor!!!

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hi All!!!,

I have to share this with you!! I am not sure if this is the right forum, but so what! I am sure this will be moved to the right place.

So here we go... I have got two absolutely wonderful stories to share with you that gives me hope and assurance that coming out slow and easy is the best way to go (especially at the work place).

Ok, scene 1,

A manager was being transferred to another faciltity, so we had the obligitory cake cerimony. All seemed normal right! Well sort of.... There were two women cutting the cake and starting to hand it out. A male employee standing behind me shouts out "Hey bernie, how come you are not up there with the other women handing out cake too?". They all laughed, I smiled ( I was beaming inside!!). To me, here was an example of my co-workers getting used to the idea that I was not male!!! To make things more comfortable for themselves they used humor!! Nice.

Scene 2,

I am working on a very serious systems problem.... I tell my boss at the end of the day "Just call me later, if you need status". Another employee hears this and says "Call you what?". Perplexed I said "Call me later". He said "no, don't you mean call you Mary?" (again beaming inside!). I said "Yes, call me Mary!"

Now, I know these are not the best examples of coming out, but a very important point I am trying to make here... Yes, I could have taken the jokes as derrogatory, but I did not, because I realized my co-workers were coming to terms with who I was via humor.

Humor is good, if taken the right way!!!

Just wanted to share!!

bernie

[Guest Pól_Eire]

Hey bernie,

Those are great stories. It sounds like they're really coming around to it -- humour like that, if it's well-intentioned, is a really powerful tool.

Congrats!

-Pól

[Guest mia 1]

Now that is excellent bernie. So glad you can take those comments the way they were intended..in fun and not at your expense.............a great role model for us all especially the young folks who have to deal with bullying at school...they may understand all comments made toward us are not meant to be hurtful...............

[Sally]

Yeah, Bernie!

I like to think that everyone isn't out to get me (sometimes I'm wrong) and I try to take humorus as complementery whenever possible.

Someone had to think about you to come up with a joke.

Consider the source is always a good guide - for insults as well.

Ask yourself before you get upset, "Do I even care what this person thinks?"

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Yeah, Bernie!

I like to think that everyone isn't out to get me (sometimes I'm wrong) and I try to take humorus as complementery whenever possible.

Someone had to think about you to come up with a joke.

Consider the source is always a good guide - for insults as well.

Ask yourself before you get upset, "Do I even care what this person thinks?"

Love ya,

Sally

Hi Sally,

I love my co-workers, and I know they love me!! What I am seeing is that are begining to acknowledge a change in me, and that they are expressing that recognition in the only way they know how to do! Jokes! I do not blame them nor am I offended. I understand that they are now dealing with an experience that they have never encounter before. So I am patient. I let them be. I let them poke fun, becuase they have to!! In time the jokes will fade away, and I will then have truely come out!!!

LOL

bernie

[Guest doodle]

Thats nice Bernie I hope I'm that lucky when I come out on my job.

doodle

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

Sounds like their own ways of dealing with it and accepting it.

Me on the other hand, I get whacked on the head with tampons from various female coworkers who are jealous that I won't get a period.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hey Lizzie,

You bring up a very good point!! Only the guys have expressed their acknowledgment of my feminity. My female co-workers have been very distant at this time. Hopefuly things will change. One close friend who I work with and is female has been a very big help on alot of things (you know what I mean). I am hoping that she'll pave the way to the other female co-workers that everything is OK.

LOL

bernie