In 1995 working for Kinko's, the chain of copy and printing stores, I was targeted by a claim. A former employee I was tasked with terminating two weeks prior as Assistant Manager of the Highlands branch in Louisville, Kentucky sited an environment hostile to him due to his homosexuality. I will admit unashamedly that sexual preference aided our decision to excise him from our business, my superior and I. Now I should mention that I have been an out Gay man since 1985.

     Kinko's Copies sprung from Ventura, California in the early '70s and founder/namesake curly-headed Paul Orfalea prided himself on workplace diversity before the term was buzzed to near meaninglessness. During my maiden year I perused the international company newsletter, finding a congratulatory piece about four coworkers competing in that year's Gay Games in California. I had stellar health insurance, a 401k with 5 match, starting pay above average, vacation/sick time, and nationwide transfer options all from trade school education. I felt blessed, plus this company valued me not only for acumen, but my weirdness. Company culture was the twenty-somethings: eccentric, artsy, fringe, sexual spectrum-riders gave me a home when I jettisoned from Lexington to Derby City's more urbane features and a work/life/play family to complement the company mantra. So why did this other gay man send Amy, the Regional Manager a 7 page rebuke of myself and the team I loved like my brood?

     I developed a streets-methodology for networking crafting quality relationships for myself. I set my sexual preference to be at least the fifth thing someone new found out about me where possible. Wearing my sex via rainbows and acronyms on my gear was not me. I joked and talked about movies, books, music, TV, comics, or food for jibing with interlocutors on round one. Developing a web of great friends who respected me without being "Gay Todd" who also happens to read, I avoided becoming a novelty and occasionally would register shock when someone would realize my preference. I affected some people's view of queers. The person I terminated picked another route.

     Brennan came to us highly recommended from bustling Hurstbourne Lane, and we reckoned later the glowing appraisal was glossy paint over serious bondo. Arriving three hours tardy fresh on a Saturday when my Manager and I were off came him. Donuts to charm a crew of exhausted nicotine-deprived teammates were offered on a hectic morning with a skeleton crew disenchanted with a diva demeanor that delivered pastries then tasked himself with organizing and cleaning the stockroom sans solicitation or approval, leaving his fellows to service the customers unsupported. Monday I spoke to my new subordinate about his debut citing unacceptable features met with a curt apology and disproportionate interest in how he saw me receiving glimpses of affection from straight male coworkers. This wasn't atypical as I had known all a year plus, worked alongside for grueling hours, closed the University of Louisville location moving it's physical and human assets to our present station we'd bowled, danced, swam, and partied through the seasons en masse. Family forged in toner. Power Of Attorney thirty years later managing my money in prison is my lateral Assistant Manager from that store.

     Day's end saw Brennan attempt to hug every parallel male wage-earner on the clock leading to multiple awkward situations, none of which stemmed from work performance as between trying to smother his peers and deliver an oral autobiography with copious references to unwanted sexual details he hadn't the time to make copies. Six days later my boss Max demanded expulsion. Brennan declined it. Returning Saturday next he lent debate despite the necessary documentation for Human Resources involving sound termination. Rife with drug references and clearly amounting to alienation from a socially maladjusted individual devoid of reflection was a lengthy diatribe Amy read excerpts from like a stand-up comedienne. It got equivalent response from the audience. This was unarguably more comical than six months before when we were accused of racial discrimination.

     Constantly the directive was to recruit Black talent. Our company's values concomitant with governmental incentives made African heritage team members the Holy Grail. Elusive, as we never got applicants unlike other stores in that market and odd when Old Louisville has a vast community. Finally came Melanie, a theater student who saw her job as an employee in a copy shop purely as stage. Rather than expediency when handling lines of customers, she focused on entertaining them and often the product she up-sold was her phone number instead of ancillary services like divider tabs. In production she treated the machinery like a girl from a 1960's comedy, exaggerating incompetence and femininity to avoid labor, while incessantly laterally communicating with her work-mates who in a short time grew to loathe her. She was devoid of boundary, loud and ceaselessly melodramatic. Including her in a weekend excursion to a lake-house a girlfriend of our third shifters parents owned, she sexually propositioned the overnight worker getting busted by our hostess and brought drama to a desirably undramatic event. The flaw in our diamond had to be eliminated.

     Max, our lead, had no issue getting ducks lined in short duration and Melanie was relieved on a Monday afternoon. Wednesday around 2 PM she, age 23, her mother, a West Indies expatriate and former model accompanied by a civil rights minister infamous for summoning camera crews entered. Melanie was not a poor worker, my boss was informed, she was misunderstood and wronged without proper cultivation, needing guidance. Amy told Max cease and desist before an incident unfolded. "Bully" was Melanie's finest role.

     Gaining rights and acceptance generates unfortunate backlash behavior. The leap from oppressed to entitled is short. These characters were cut from the same cloth. As the same but different component to Brennan, this is Exhibit A in my push for authentic diversity and individual empowerment. Tribalisms downside from Go! is inclusion of such behavior. I work too hard to merge his number destroying my average.

     Barriers exist for queer workforce attendees of caliber. Location is less of a problem than ever. Trolls will never be extinct but rare like mumps, I hypothesize. Residing in Paducah from 2012-'15 visible and confident presence was common. The issue that I see very prevalent is the motivated having to work twice as hard to be taken seriously and that impacts mobility regarding income and title. The novelty effect I mentioned is legitimate. The assumption that we are intellectually deficient is something my Black peers and I commiserate and empathize about often. The conclusion of that defect is the one true aspect of my reality I experience marginalizing inside of. Myself and my fellows have to work twice as hard to be seen as credible and I still get shouted over.

     I'm wise enough to know better, and that took over fifty years to cultivate. Maybe I'll watch these generalizations crumble for all of us in the next fifty. I believe that occurs with gay youth hearing voices like mine - educated seniority figures stressing the value they hold beyond their sexuality. Focus on the holistic - the whole self followed by their connections and commitments to humanity - and the sexual piece will work itself out while they become a gift to our world. People do their best work when working on being their best selves.