smacked with the double standard stick.
So, I work in a restaurant up here in the Trenton area...and for the first time in about a decade I am the only gay guy on staff. For months I have been putting up with all the stupid commentary like "oh that's so gay..." or "why you gotta be such a fag..." amongst my co-workers (non aimed at me...just things that they say in general conversation with each other). I don't let it get to me...I just figure they don't know any better and it amuses me when they say something like that and notice that I'm there and get all embarassed and turn to me and aplogize with an explanation like "oh i didn't mean anything by it...sorry" Nobody thinks anything of it, they just drop the gay, fag, homo comments without a second thought and even the managers don't pay attention..
Now those of us that work in the restaurant indsutry are painfully aware that there are certain minorities out there who don't know shit about tipping...whether it's inappropriate to flat out call them out on it or not, we all know that it's true more often than not. For some reason tonight that was all I was getting in my section...and got tips like 5 on 65, 15 on 135, etc. So I made a comment along the lines of "apparantly I am waiting on Downtown Trenton."
Well one of my co-workers, we'll call him...uhmm TOM...(who himself bitches about tables and is one of the worst about throwing the faggot word aronud) decided to grumble to the Managers AND a couple guests that he and his girlfriend happen to know, about what I said.
I got some attitude about it..and i'm sure that I am going to be bitched at tomorrow when I go to work by the GM...but trust me if I'm going to be lectured about saying something inappropriate I am going to take a few swings of my own about how I'm made to feel uncomfortable on a daily basis...and one of the other servers (Dan) even made an extremely ignorant comment about HIV and when I let a manager know that it pissed me off it was shuffled under the rug with a "he didn't mean anything by it."
When I was talking about it with a couple co-workers tonight, their explanation was "people just don't think about it when they say "oh it's so gay.." it's just what everybody says. Which made me painfully aware that I am out of the Orlando bubble now for the first time...because Orlando is a very openly gay friendly environment...and here I have found I have to use the survival skills I let grow rusty while living down in FL.
So here's the question...why should I get bitched at for making ONE supposedly inappropriate comment, when I am subjected to them every shift I work?
Now those of us that work in the restaurant indsutry are painfully aware that there are certain minorities out there who don't know shit about tipping...whether it's inappropriate to flat out call them out on it or not, we all know that it's true more often than not. For some reason tonight that was all I was getting in my section...and got tips like 5 on 65, 15 on 135, etc. So I made a comment along the lines of "apparantly I am waiting on Downtown Trenton."
Well one of my co-workers, we'll call him...uhmm TOM...(who himself bitches about tables and is one of the worst about throwing the faggot word aronud) decided to grumble to the Managers AND a couple guests that he and his girlfriend happen to know, about what I said.
I got some attitude about it..and i'm sure that I am going to be bitched at tomorrow when I go to work by the GM...but trust me if I'm going to be lectured about saying something inappropriate I am going to take a few swings of my own about how I'm made to feel uncomfortable on a daily basis...and one of the other servers (Dan) even made an extremely ignorant comment about HIV and when I let a manager know that it pissed me off it was shuffled under the rug with a "he didn't mean anything by it."
When I was talking about it with a couple co-workers tonight, their explanation was "people just don't think about it when they say "oh it's so gay.." it's just what everybody says. Which made me painfully aware that I am out of the Orlando bubble now for the first time...because Orlando is a very openly gay friendly environment...and here I have found I have to use the survival skills I let grow rusty while living down in FL.
So here's the question...why should I get bitched at for making ONE supposedly inappropriate comment, when I am subjected to them every shift I work?