Back in 1988 I worked at one company where a group of about 7 or 8 of my co-workers would eat lunch together in the company cafeteria. We were a mixed group of single and married, 20's-30's, mixed race and religious backgrounds.

There was one single guy named Mike who was a really nice guy, he was pretty much just out of college and a hard worker.

Every Friday we'd discuss what our plans were for the weekend, someone was going fishing with his wife, someone going away with her boyfriend... etc. Typical chit-chat stuff. Mike would be, "I dunno, gonna hang out I guess." Then on Monday we'd all talk about the fun things we did over the past weekend. Mike would say "Didn't do much, just hung out."

About 1 1/2 years later a really bizarre incident occured. Mike was trying a rational explanation about why a particular project idea by our only openly gay employee was not a good idea. The boss said to him in the meeting "You just don't like the idea because it was Fred's suggestion and you're a homophobe."
Mike jumped up and banged the table in anger "You idiot, I AM a homosexual and he's still a moron!" Then he stopped in the stunned silence "Shit, I can't beleive I just came out because of this."

What pissed me off was when we found out that he had been in a relationship with one guy for over 4 years and he never felt that he could tell us about it. No one else had any problem discussing our relationships, but Mike felt he had to hide his and lie about it. That just sucks! During this period I meet a woman, started dating her, got engaged and married and I never gave a second thought to how it would feel to have to hide every aspect of this most important relationship in my life. Wow, that is so sad.

by CptRich on 07/04/2009 10:41:49 AM EST