The weirdest character that I've seen in a long time...

[Frank Cox]

I went to a local government office to pay a bill and encountered quite a sight.

There's a guy there who I've now seen twice, once a few months ago when I was paying another bill and then again today. He's probably in his 40's and, I guess, gay. Which is not much of an issue in itself but he behaves like a parody of a gay person from a 1970's television comedy. High falsetto voice, "Well, hello there, I see you're paying taxes today" while fluttering his eyelashes, and he flounces around in a way that you have to see to believe. I'd think his performance was intended to be some kind of slapstick except that I guess he's serious.

He doesn't seem to be there too often; maybe he just fills in when someone else is on holiday or out sick since there's usually two women there to man the front counter and take your money. Today he was there all by himself.

I guess it takes all kinds and that guy is a kind. I don't think I could deal with being around stuff like that for too long without telling him to cut it out. Fortunately I can just pay the bill and be on my way; I don't envy anyone who has to work there around him. Sheesh.

Maybe I should feel sorry for him in that he may not know how gay people are supposed to act so he's taking a pattern off of old tv comedies. He probably doesn't know how ridiculous he is and I guess in this day and age who's going to be the one to tell him?

[Mike Blakesley]

This guy you describe may be mentally challenged in some way, but there are plenty of gay people around who are as smart as anyone yet they choose to be outlandish. I don't understand why (some) gay people have to be so outlandish in order to "be themselves." I guess it's a similar mindset as people who cover themselves in tattoos or piercings in an effort to express themselves. They don't seem to care what effect their actions have on their future life, and they also don't care what other people think of them -- or so they say -- but then they get upset when they aren't "accepted."

We've had several gay employees over the years. Two of them stand out: One was valedictorian in his class, the nicest guy you could ever meet, clean-cut, dressed like any other guy would. The other was the basically the same type of person, just not as scholarly. The first one went to college on a four-year, full-ride scholarship to a major university, and within the first semester, he fell into the extreme-"gay" lifestyle with the costumes, parades, protests, etc. Within that year he had dropped out of college and was HIV positive. He's no longer in touch with anyone from here that I know of, and the last I heard, he was working as a barista somewhere. If he'd stayed in school he could have been an eventual millionaire, probably.

The second employee went into the Army, eventually met and married a nice guy, and they have since adopted two sons. They are happy as can be and people around here still keep in touch with him. He's always posting family pics on Facebook. They seem to have a great life.

I've just always been mystified why some people who appear to be smart, make choices that have the potential to ruin their life -- and then stay on the same path, even though they're supposedly smart people.

I suppose some of these thoughts of mine are rooted in the fact that I've been a businessperson since I was about 12 and have always been concerned about appearances, etc. I've had the discussion with a couple of theater employees over the years about why we don't hire people who have piercings that stick out of their mouth or have tattoos on their hands or face, etc. It has nothing to do with me being against "expression," and I don't have any problem with people expressing their own style or their sexuality. It has everything to do with making the customer feel comfortable and not nauseated by the person serving them.

[Leo Enticknap]

I once worked in a theater at which I was literally the only heterosexual male on the payroll. I suspect this happened because the manager who was hired by the chain to open the place was gay, and he simply hired other people from among his circle of friends and contacts. This was in a very conservative market town in the south-west of England, where what little gay "scene" that existed was somewhat discrete; so they all knew each other. But they were forced to go outside the inner circle for someone who knew their way around a projector, hence my ending up there.

The only issue was that sometimes they forgot. One afternoon, the manager decided that as well as building up prints and showing movies, he wanted me to rearrange the lighting behind the bar so that it illuminated his flower arrangements just right (I'm not joking). While I was messing around with wrenches, screwdrivers, and different ratings and color temperatures of light bulb at his direction, his bar tender - and partner - said "Oh Leo darling, is he getting like that again? Just tell him to stop being such a fussy old poof!" I diplomatically replied that he could probably get away with delivering that message but that I couldn't.

[Harold Hallikainen]

The "hiring from circle of friends" or doing hiring based on existing employee referrals has gotten some companies into EEO problems.

https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibited-empl...iciespractices

"For example, an employer's reliance on word-of-mouth recruitment by its mostly Hispanic work force may violate the law if the result is that almost all new hires are Hispanic."

[Marcel Birgelen]

This guy you describe may be mentally challenged in some way, but there are plenty of gay people around who are as smart as anyone yet they choose to be outlandish. I don't understand why (some) gay people have to be so outlandish in order to "be themselves." I guess it's a similar mindset as people who cover themselves in tattoos or piercings in an effort to express themselves. They don't seem to care what effect their actions have on their future life, and they also don't care what other people think of them -- or so they say -- but then they get upset when they aren't "accepted."

I consider who you are, what you like, what you love and what you believe in your personal business and as long as you don't explicitly bring it to work or to my attention otherwise, I couldn't care less. I have a good friend who is homosexual and behaves like everybody else and apparently most of them do... Those "attention seekers" are seemingly the outliers and aren't necessary universally liked by all members of the "community", as they put a lot of emphasis on being "different", while most of them just want to be accepted as "normal", whatever that word entails.

Sometimes, it's hard for me to deal correctly with awkward situations. For example, a few years back I met someone I knew from before, only then, it was a he, whereas now it clearly was a she. I tried to do my best to act normal, but it's hard to ignore the fact that something had changed. I eventually asked her what did made her make the decision to undergo such a change, but apparently that wasn't the right thing to ask, although my question was genuine and didn't come with any prejudice.

Like Mike indicated, the person Frank describes may have other issues though. The best and political correct way is usually to simply try ignore it as much as possible, act like you'd do in any normal situation. As long as your problem is being dealt with, I guess that's the road of least resistance and nobodies feelings get unnecessarily hurt.

[Frank Cox]

I think it would be exhausting to keep up a performance like that hour after hour, day after day. With a regular job, always remembering to walk and talk and being "on stage" all day.

[Randy Stankey]

Personally, I have my preferences which are, for the most part, middle of the road. While I often feel uncomfortable around people of other preference, my stated policy is:
"I don't care who you fuck as long as the other person wants to fuck you back."

Secondarily, what a person does in the privacy of their own bedroom is nobody's business but their own.
Take that in the proverbial sense, not the literal. I don't advocate that people with alternate lifestyles keep their activities under a veil of secrecy. Just keep the details to yourself, be you man, woman, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, "non-binary" or whatever. Normal displays of affection between consenting adults is not a problem while public displays of behaviors that are generally considered sexual in nature are a problem for me. It doesn't matter who you are.

All that, having been said, I find it objectionable when people feel the need to throw their lifestyle in other peoples' faces. They act like they have the right to act "gay" in public. They seem to give the impression that other people have to like they way they behave and justify it with the excuse that they are somehow oppressed by the rest of society. No, they don't have the right to act out in public any more than others. If it's wrong for a man like me to act like a "football jock" in public, it's just as wrong for somebody else to act like a "queen."

Of course, that's venue-specific. If a person is inside a dance club, frequented by others of similar persuasion, acting like a queen might be acceptable. The same goes if a person is at a football game. Acting like a jock is probably acceptable. In public, walking down the street, at the grocery store or the post office and other public places, it should be expected that people act with a little bit more class. It's just courtesy. It's the way you show respect for others. If a person, regardless of their personal preferences, acts out in public they should EXPECT some sort of push back.

If I went to the post office and saw a clerk acting like the way Frank describes, I'd probably just smile politely and, for the most part, ignore the behavior until I got outside again. After that, I'd probably say to the person I was with, "Somebody should put that guy out with a fire hose!"