Ready to Come Out as Gay at Your Firm? Avoid Grand Gestures
Lawyers contemplating coming out as gay to colleagues at their law firms don’t need to make any grand gestures or announcements, according to a gay lawyer writing in a British publication.
Instead, making a casual remark about attending a play with your “boyfriend” (if you’re a man) may be all that you need to do, Thomas Eggar tax partner James Quarmby writes in the Lawyer. Or try taking your significant other to the office holiday party. “You can be guaranteed that, within a few hours of arrival, the gossips will have done their work,” he says.
“However, it’s probably best to avoid getting heroically drunk and snogging to the slow numbers on the dance floor,” he adds. “This may be a step too far.”
In any case, don’t make a big deal out of it and “don’t make any grand gestures or announcements,” Quarmby writes. “Hanging a banner over your desk emblazoned with the words, ‘Yes, I’m gay, get over it’, probably isn’t the best move. Lawyers are conservative creatures by nature and are easily shocked by … well … anything really.”
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog noted the column, entitled “Ten ways to reveal your lover: coming out the easy way.”
