From: not2@delphi.com
Subject: =-= FIRED, Six Flags Great Adventure, 8/1/85 =-=
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 95 15:35:18 -0500

 
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,
    "Your 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!  YOUR 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!!!"