Charles Perez and The Continuing Facts of Life

Just read a story on Queerty.com (posted five days ago) about the saga of Charles Perez, who was first demoted to weekend anchor and later fired outright from his anchorman gig at Miami's ABC affiliate WPLG for, it is strongly suspected, the crime of Delivering The News While Openly Gay. Perez is fighting back, having lodged a complaint of discrimination; the case is pending with the Equal Opportunity Board. I was interested, as always, in the comments posted by readers; one of them really grabbed my attention, opining:

"You shouldn't be discriminated against for being gay, but you shouldn't bring the fact that you are gay to the workplace overtly (emphasis mine) either. "

I read that one twice, shaking my head, which was flooding with memories of workplaces past. I decided to register with Queerty, just so I could respond to that particular comment--which had to have been made by an extremely young and naive, or willfully obtuse, person. This is, in the main, what I posted in response:

Excuse me, please?? That statement completely ignores the fact--the FACT--that hetero workers think nothing of bringing the fact of THEIR sexual orientation into the workplace, "overtly" or otherwise, every single day!

I've been a working adult for nearly 3 decades now. In every office or workspace where I have been employed, straight fellow employees have proudly displayed on their cubicle walls and desks all manner of evidence of their personal lives, especially scads of photos of their kids and spouses or significant others. The marrieds come to work each day grousing--sometimes jokingly, sometimes not--about life with their Better Half, the singletons come in with glowing details about last night's hot rendezvous and an eagerly anticipated weekend getaway with the latest object of their affection... unless, that is, they come in bemoaning the latest loser they felt compelled to endure on the previous evening's travesty of a date.

Either way, you can't get away from the information overload--don't get me started on what happens with the approach of St. Valentine's Day--and given how much of their lives working people spend on the job, it's really not surprising.

And as for dealings with "the public" (which presumably would include customers and clients)-- just how is a gay person supposed to respond when "the public" brings up personal matters, chatting about their own family and/or love life--and then asking you about yours? People do that you know, and even in these post-Ellen, post-Will & Grace, post-Queer As Folks times, straight people have an annoying tendency to assume that everyone in the room is hetero like them.

What do you do if you're not hetero like them? Are we really expected to lie? Why should we have to? Why are the rules still different for some?

Perhaps I should have included as post script: Can you hear me, Mr. "Change We Can Believe In"?