Good Morning.

I work for what I have recently described as the "most gay-friendly company in the United States". While I can't speak for all our locations (some are in the deep South), here in the Northeast, there are no contra-indications.


I tend to not see colours. Perhaps because of being raised by a family of liberal musicians. I learned at an early age, thanks to one of my father's friends - "it doesn't matter if you're white, brown, or have purple polka-dots. When you're on the bandstand, the only thing that's important is - can you play?"

Dr. King tried to get us all to understand that when he hoped that one day his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

We clearly still have a long way to go.

Driving tourists in Boston is an interesting business. We're a rather tight-knit community, and a weird, dysfunctional sniping family that watches out for each other no matter what.

Being a straight male driving a bus seems to be the most normal thing on earth, but even though we are the majority at the company, I somehow feel like a minority. Over time, and 100% by accident, I've come to find the "who's who" of our staff. Many of our ghost actors prefer to love members of the same sex. A dispatcher is non-binary.

I'm actually amused by two stories - one is from a few years ago now. Our then General Manager is a pretty straight-laced and conservative feeling gentleman. I did not know him outside of work, but when he left the GM role in Boston to move to a National position, we had a going away party - and it's there that I learned he has been happily married to another man for a number of years.

Just recently, an actor friend of mine at work casually mentioned "her wife", and I barely even noticed.

But - isn't that the true meaning of friendly? I of course am going to go to my personal mission statement here.



The point being - this is normal. It always has been normal. It's only the people that choose to make it an issue that cause the problems. I do not make that choice. I cannot fathom where the blind hatred and outright opposition comes from, except to think it is indoctrination or brainwashing from other sources. You can make your own connections.

It also goes back to something on our masthead, taken from a famous speech by a President in 1932.



Fear comes from the unknown. The LGBTQ community lives among us every day. Many of them are closeted - by necessity, and of their own fear of how society will react. Society's fear is unfounded. What harm will those different from me personally cause me?

None - as long as we all treat each other with kindness and mutual respect.

Items that are sorely lacking in the Divided States of America today.