Date: 2nd May 04

Time: As usual we will meet at Just Around The Corner in Bandra from 5.00-6.00 pm then go to someone's house nearby where the discussion can take place. 

Venue: Bandra (W). For directions to Just Around The Corner check out website www.gaybombay.cc and mails on this will also be posted on these lists. 

Topic: Being gay in the workplace - and that's not the same as being out in the workplace. Being out is part of it, and we'll discuss the experiences of people who are out in the workplace and how they have fared. 

But we recognise that you don't have to be out in the workplace to still have issues with being gay over there. Like how to handle all those kindly (or not so kindly) queries from office workers about why you aren't married yet. 

Or when people ask you who this friend you keep hanging out with is? Or how to handle office conversations where gay subjects come up - sometimes in a homophobic way. Or why you have a Shahrukh Khan screensaver and not an Aishwarya Rai one? 

And then there are the tricky emotional ones. Ever had a crush on your boss? On a co-worker? Or the flip side, ever had a co-worker of the opposite sex start flirting with you, and how do you react to it without being rude? 

Or ever encountered another co-worker in a gay space and then you don't know what he'll say in office the next day? Or is there someone else in the office who's gay, and he knows you know and is paranoid you might out him? 

In the ideal workplace perhaps these issues would not come up. All that would matter would be how your work was, and how you did it and who, would be entirely a private matter. 

But workplaces are rarely perfect and the human dimension does matter, so we can't really package ourselves as perfect sexless working machines or in time that becomes equally suspect to your co-workers who are busy sharing intimate details of their personal lives across the cubicles. 

So this Sunday's discussion is on how to deal with this issue in a realistic way, that does compromise your dignity, yet doesn't cause problems for you in the workplace either. 

We'd like to look at this in different types of businesses (are industries like advertising really that gay friendly? How about the software industry?), different types of companies (multinationals better than Indian companies? Proprietor versus professionally run?) and different types of jobs and levels (easier at a junior or senior level?) 

We want to hear from experiences of all kinds, so it doesn't have to be from someone in an office cubicle - workplace issues arise in environments of all kinds. We would like people to share experiences, but if you just want to come and listen that's OK too. 

So if you've ever wondered how to handle your sexuality in the workplace, make it a point to come to GB's special meeting this Sunday,

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Note :
1. Ensure that you get to JATC before 6:00 pm - in case the evening carries over to another gay-friendly place close by.

2. GB as a support group, has created this comfort/safe space for gays, many of whom may be "newbies" (those still coming to terms with their sexuality and who have mustered courage to come for such a meeting for the first time). So we request you to be sensitive to the comfort levels of others attending the meeting and behave and dress accordingly.  Dressing in DRAG is therefore strictly discouraged.

3. To identify the group, look out for someone wearing a BLACK cap.
 

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This is a GayBombay (gb) organized event

Rights of admission reserved.
You have to be above the age of 18 to attend this gb event.

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