Out at Work

Yesterday I attended an Out At Work event run by a LGBT society from a local university. It was really interesting and the first time I've ever talked to a group of people about my experience transitioning in work. I'm not including friends, colleagues or you dear readers.

I'd originally prepared a list of points for what I was going to say as the talk needed to be about 10 minutes long. Strangely trying to fit my experience into 10 minutes was really difficult and no matter how I tried to get everything into the time while practicing I knew I'd overrun. While I was driving from home to the venue I realised that talking about the mechanics of transitioning at work wasn't going to be what they wanted to hear. They were going to want to hear about things that had happened to me and how both I and others had dealt with it. In the end I simply threw away my prepared notes, other than the first part which was the introduction and spoke as my heart and mind took me.

I managed to raise a few laughs with some of my anecdotes which I was glad of.

The last time I had to speak to a large group of people was at my wedding and I had spent a lot of time preparing that speech. Other than that the only other times have been while running team meetings. This was a real achievement for me.

My talk went down well as did those of the other people that were talking. The question and answer session was thought provoking. Being among LGB folk was interesting for me as although I'm married I know that my sexuality is not heterosexual as it once was in the man/woman sense of my marriage or even lesbian which is quite possibly how some people would see my partner and I if they didn't know our situation. I'm more aware of my sexuality now than I ever was and I know that it leans in the bisexual direction.

I hope that what I had to say helped everyone that was there. I know that being there and listening to everyone certainly helped me. Who knows one of these days I may just end up coming out at work again. Not about my gender this time but about my sexuality. I doubt that it will top coming out as transsexual though if I do.