Date: Sat, 30 Jul 1994 13:54:09 -0400 From: "Michael, The Manager Of DELPHI's Gay Forum" I originally wrote and published this story back in July 1992. I repost it each year at this time to remind myself and folks of how awful our world is! The memory and hurt are burnt into my brain forever! On August 1st 1985, I discovered how cruel people can be just because your gay. "GETTING FIRED FOR BEING GAY" Copyright(C) not2@delphi.com I just graduated from high school. I needed money for college, so I want looking for a job. I had my heart set on working at this amusement park that I fell in love with when I was 7 years old. I worked for Six Flags Great Adventure for 4 summers, 1982 to 1985. Park use and rock concerts were free to employees. I loved it! I wanted to work in the "shows" department, but there was a long waiting list. So I worked as a foodservice cashier for the first 3 summers, then as a ride operator. I realized I was gay at 10 years old, but never started "practicing" till 1983. I wanted to meet someone like myself so bad that I started "cruising" at the amusement park. Cruising co-workers and park guests. I know, real dangerous, but I was desperate! Now when I say "cruising" I mean, asking a guy would he like to hang around and go on some rides or see a concert with me. Than I would talk to him about girls. I was discreet. I didn't do it for sex, just needed someone like myself to talk to. I was filled with tons of questions. I hadn't met a gay person in my life. At the food stand I worked at, I had a crush on Jack. He was short, hairy, hunky, and his smile, Oh his smile! :) He always had 1 or 2 girls hanging all over him. We had an evening together walking around the park. I told him I never had sex with a girl. "What's it like?" My heart stopped when he told me he never done it too! "What?! With all the girls that hang around you?" I though this was it. He might be gay too, so I opened up. "I think I might be gay, but I'm not sure." He was understanding and I told him how I felt. I asked him if he was gay. "I'm not sure either. I think I might be" We talked for an hour and then he had to catch his ride home. We never did anything, just talked. The next day at work was awful. Jack told everyone at the food stand! The jokes! The comments! I became the talk of that section of the park in foodservice. What I put up with that year and the next was nothing to what would happen in 1985, my last summer. In the fall of 1983 I want on to finally, for the first time, discovering the local gay bars, dating, men, sex,... outside the park...but that's another story. In 1985, I tried again to transfer into the shows department, but excepted an opening in the rides department. In the rides department, there was, "Mr. Popular", "Mr. Loudmouth", a very outgoing, very well liked guy named Bruce! Well, then Jack heard I transferred into Rides, he just had to tell Bruce! Bruce made a big stink, to make my days like hell. Bruce was a bully. It became hell alright! Everyone in the rides department hated my guts! I was called names! Rumors where started! Stories like, I attacked co-workers in the restrooms. One story, which never even happened, where I forced my way into a restroom stall and tried to touch a co-worker's dick! And was called into the supervisor's office and given a written warning! I may have "come-on" to people at Great Adventure, but I never ever touched anyone's body, right through my last day! Co-workers started to refuse to work with me! My car's lights were smashed. The tires were slashed! "FAG" was spray painted on my locker! The works!!!! Even management started to hate me because of the problems they had to deal with. I think what really made my last year the worst, was because I was dating a cute guy named Joe and every one saw it. He acted and looked like a girl. He worked in the games department and everyone knew he was gay! Joe was fired at the end of June for stealing money. The park claimed he did it. Joe told me he would never steal. I went through another month of hell before my "day" was to come. It was the first of August. I was working a double shift on the "Hell Whole" ride. It was a slow night and I was working all by myself. Then it happened! Six young men came on my ride. Ages 20 to 23 maybe. They looked like they were in a good mood and having fun. They said nothing to me. I ran the ride. The control booth was at the ride's exit. They had to walk by me to leave. Then all of a sudden without no warning, one of them rips my name tag from my shirt and yells, "You fucking Faggot! You pinched my ass! You just messed with the wrong guy!" "Let's break his fucking neck!!!" another one said. "No! I want his supervisor here! Now!" Said the guy with my name tag. Another guy grabbed me by my shirt's collar and threatened, "You're lucky your not in some alley somewhere! Because we would really enjoy beating the hell out of you, faggot!!!" I picked up the phone and called the office. The guys continued to make threats and say really bad things. 5 minutes later, my supervisor showed up with 2 security guards! He said to me, "I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later! You had to do it, didn't you! You came on to a park guest! YOU'RE OUT OF HERE!!! Wait in my office until I settle things with these guests!" I was escorted to the office by 2 security guards like a criminal! Where the supervisor told me I was fired for sexually assaulting a park guest of the same sex. "6 guests just signed complaints against you!" He also told me I will have a bad employment record with Six Flags for the rest of my life and trying to take it to court was useless because I had no witnesses. I cleaned out my locker while the 2 guards watched! I could hear a handful of employees in the locker room were laughing their heads off!! The guards followed me to my car. Two weeks later, I was on the phone with Joe and he told me, "My brother (who also worked in the rides department) overheard something today I think you should know. The whole thing was preplanned by your supervisor and other workers! The 6 men were personal friends of Bruce who posed as park guests! It was a set up! YOU WERE FRAMED!!!"