A few years ago, our company rolled out company initiatives for diversity. It was the usual mix of earnestness mixed with corporate awkwardness (the main logo for it was a snowflake.) One of the things they did was make space for groups to get together and form a sense of community. TBH it seems to be working, so that’s cool. I was on an almost entirely older cis/male/white team, and a bunch of us went to the bar after the meeting. We were talking about the new initiative and one of the greybeards asked where the old white guy safe space was. And I just gestured around the bar and said “you’re there. We are sitting in the middle of it. It’s everywhere.” He completely froze up.

He wasn’t a bad guy, just a little bewildered by the new change. He came around pretty quickly after that.

Straight with queer characteristics