I got told to “be a man” and got gaslighted by a Coworker, getting told that it was my fault for getting angry about being discriminated against.
I was working in a restaurant cleaning dishes (the greatest job there is) and there was a coworker whose sibling is dating my stepbrother. I was working one day and he came up to me and had some inappropriate comments to make about my sexuality and said that I was gay for my stepbrother (his sisters boyfriend and not true) and I asked him to repeat what he said but he said “trust me, you don't want me to repeat it” and laughed as he walked away.
He came back and then I told him off strongly and he tried to lie and say “i was calling him gay not you” which is not true. He's an insincere gaslighter/liar trying to save his ass.
I went off to the bathroom and felt like crying I was emotional, angry and upset. What does my sexuality have to do with cleaning dishes and why does it even matter?
I could hear the whole kitchen laughing as I was in the bathroom and they were all laughing when I got back, I felt like they were laughing at me. It was humiliating. I guess they thought it was funny how I “overreacted”.
I was then told by the perpetrator that he gets angry too sometimes and that he forgives me (thank God he was able to forgive me for getting angry about being discriminated against due to my sexuality, God forbid if he wasn't able to forgive me I wouldn't be able to live with myself sarcasm intended)
I resigned shortly after.
I have confusion about my own sexuality it's not clear to me what I am, I'm also someone with autism and according to research people with autism are more likely to have diverse non-hetero sexualities Link. So it really hurts to experience this in the workplace.