V
ju s t out ▼ Ja n u a ry 2 1 , 1 9 0 4 ▼ 2 7
,
Perform ance
an x iety
OLD TOWN
ANTIQUE
by Grant Michael Menzies
t is a familiar scenario for all too many of us.
tive is, it only helps hand on the key to the closet to
You’ve been through that first interview,
the next gay employee. As Woods indicates, lying
and the recommendations from the person is often condoned when it is part of the effort to
nel director carry you on to the second.
survive, to avoid harm or to avert crisis. Many gay
You’re one of the chosen few. You sit
men, he says, “are quick to argue that deception is
before your future superior—you hope, or justified
do
by the circumstances.” They make a
you?—and another witness who asks the questions
“Faustian bargain.”
the department head can’t think of. Your resumé
The Corporate Closet points up the myth com
and your letters of recommendation lie on the table
mon in business settings: That professionals arc, or
between you. You are grilled about all aspects of ought to be, asexual at work. At the same time in
work: You sail ............
■
»■
mostprofessionalsiluationsthcrcopcratcsadouble
through. You are
standard, fortifying the hegemony of heterosexism
posed hypothetical
to where it invades every person, every conversa
human relations
tion, in the office, lunchroom or toilet. The mug
problem s: You
shots of kids and wives on desktops or plastered to
confidently solve
a computer monitor, the wedding bands promi
them.Every
nently displayed, the “bring-a-girlfriend” com
thing’s going your ________________________
pany picnics—all militate against effective com
munication, trust and productivity where gay pro
way. At the end, ..........
fessionals arc concerned .Gay employees can be so
there is nothing more to say, just smiles all around.
It is then they ask, after a pregnant pause, “Are obsessed with “managing” their sexuality in a
heterosexist work environment they can lose sight
you sure there isn’t something else you should tell
us?” The pregnant pause lasts a moment, then of their real professional role.
breaks water and gives birth to smiles no longer
“Although many have tried,” Woods says in his
welcoming. You’re in your 30s after all. They
chapter tilled Dismantling the Closet, “no one yet
noted you wear no wedding ring. You’re a tad too established the relevance of sexual orientation to
nattily dressed. Know what? You’d better forget
the performance of most jobs (excepting, perhaps,
about this place. As much as you wanted and
those that require actual sexual contact). Only
under exceptional circumstances would the type or
needed the job, as much as the job needs your
talents, you’ve been had. ‘They think I ’m gay.” intensity of a man’s erotic interests interfere with
his ability to, say, trade municipal bonds, teach
And they’reright. Even if this doesn’t sound famil
geometry, or design
iar, The Corporate Closet is for you.r
software.” Objections
Especially if it doesn’t sound familiar.
|to gay employees “are
Beginning in 1990, author James D.
quickly exposed as the
Woods, now professor of communica
most brutal, circular
tions at City University of New York/
form of prejudice: A
Staten Island, with the help of Jay Lucas,
gay
man’s sexuality is
interviewed a core group of 70 gay men
disruptive only be
regarding their lives and careers as pro
cause others despise
fessionals in a heterosexist work world.
him for it.”
Somewhat surprisingly, many of
If gay male profes
those interviewed expressed a stronger
sionals arc still out
interest in keeping the peace in their
there, making up
work environments than confronting
imaginary girlfriends
homophobic bosses and co-workers
and
sexy weekend
whose hobnail boots leave daily marks
Ijaunts, reading up on
on their closeted sensitivities. Says gay
football to hold forth
employee Eric, whose name, as all the
in the company john,
others used in the book, is changed for
flirting with female
protection, ‘T here’s an attorney that
secretaries,
and show
works for us and they say he’s a little bit
ing up to work the day
strange or gay. One time my boss said,
after
a
lover’s
or
close
friend’s
death knowing they
‘Watch out. He’s a great attorney, but watch out for
dare not speak of it to anyone, then there is no “gay
him because he’s gay,’ ” alluding no doubt to the
community.” If a community existed, so would the
well-known gay propensity for attacking anything
empowerment to stand up, shout your lover’s name,
in a three-piece suit. Eric, unwilling to confront his
be seen at a concert and ballet or gay bar and drag
boss, accommodated him by nodding and saying,
club and not care what the firm, the school board or
“Okay, I’ll be sure I watch out for him.”
the secretary thinks.
Stuart, after making the grade with a senior
Woods is optimistic. “More and more gay pro
associate of a law firm he hoped to join, thought it
fessionals
can now point to a gay peer who showed
right during the interview that he tell her the truth
them an alternative to the closet,” he writes. “Busi
not just about his background but also about his
ness is only now waking up to the presence of its
being gay. He approached it subtly. “I wanted to
lesbian
and gay employees...[bringing] the resis
hear more about the social atmosphere of the firm,”
tance, misunderstanding, and social clumsiness we
he related to Woods later. He asked the senior
would
expect to accompany so fundamental a
associate if the firm “was also a tolerant place for
change. By making themselves visible, lesbian and
a gay man.”The senior associate, previously poised,
gay professionals arc helping to shatter the pre
now seemed puzzled, until Stuart spoke the fateful
“G” word. Though taken aback, the senior associ sumption that the closet is a necessary, or even
desirable, response to hctcroscxism."
ate murmured something about another attorney at
Perhaps the best response, when the boss starts
the firm “rumored to be gay.” “He has a lot of
spouting
Monday night football, is to leave The
antiques,” she floundered. “We could go by his
Corporate Closet firmly on his or her desk.
office and you’ll sec what I mean.”
“I realized I had made a terrible mistake,”
Stuart says. The firm declined to make him an
The Corporate Closet
offer. Unfortunately, the experience was so trau
by James D. Woods with Jay II. Lucas
matic for Stuart that he declares he will never “out”
•
,
i
.
V v ir i * ' The Free Press, 1993\
himself again. As understandable as this perspec-*
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Lies pretense and mimicking heterosexual behaviors all play
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