Before the pandemic, I was working in Providence. It was my first job and it was at a sandwich shop. While I was working there, I came out to my coworkers. And as a result, I got fired almost immediately. There was a pattern that I began to notice. For every coworker that I came out to, my hours would get reduced by half the next week. For the first time, I thought it was a coincidence. And then I decided to come out to more coworkers who made me feel safe enough, and then it happened again. And eventually they told me that they were letting me go and kept dodging the question about my identity being queer. And when I ran that by my friends who were familiar with this kind of treatment, they told me that this is just what they do.”
— Gerard Gage (he/him), 23, non-binary, queer.
