Discovered my employee's true identity during gaming stream. Now I'm figuring out how ..

Discovered my employee's true identity during gaming stream. Now I'm figuring out how to signal support without intrusion. I stumbled upon something I never expected, and it's been on my mind ever since. I was just looking for a bit of downtime. I went to YouTube to find streams of a video game I enjoy, ready to unwind. #reddit #radditstory #askreddit #redditstories #askredditstories #storytime  As I browsed, I clicked on a small channel streaming that game. When the camera came on, I instantly recognized the streamer's face and voice. But here's the catch. The person I knew at work as Jane was being called Tarzan by the chat. Everyone was using he slash him pronouns, and in the bio there it was Tarzan, he slash him a rush of concern and curiosity hit me. Of course, I didn't jump into the chat. I know for a fact that if I were streaming in my off hours, the last thing I'd want is for my coworkers, or even worse, my boss, to wander in unannounced. More importantly though, if they were a trans man, not the cis woman, they'd presented as at work, I didn't wanna be the one to cause them anxiety by revealing that I knew. I fully believe it's up to each person to share their gender identity on their own terms, or not at all if that's what they choose. The place we work is a bit of an odd mix. The company has a reputation for being quite conservative, but day to day, the employees tend to be on the progressive side. I know they don't really have anything to fear job wise, even if they decided to come out since our country has really solid anti-discrimination laws. But of course there are countless personal reasons why someone might not wanna come out at work. Still, I keep thinking how hard it must be to force yourself back into the closet every single day, and I want them to know that if they did decide to be open at work, they'd have my support and it would be safe. Now I'm caught between wanting to subtly show my support and not wanting to intrude or push them before they're ready. I'm trying to figure out how to balance offering a sense of safety with fully respecting their privacy update. One. Everyone in my workplace was kind and thoughtful about the issue I faced, and many offered insightful advice. After considering my options, I decided not to say anything directly to Jane, nor did I focus any particular attention on her outside our professional interactions. Instead, I shifted my focus to ensuring that everyone in our workplace felt safe and respected without singling anyone out. I also stayed away from her YouTube channel. It just felt wrong to blur the boundaries between Jane's personal and professional life popping up in her comment section as her manager, or quietly following her without her knowledge, felt uncomfortably close to stalking. If I started streaming as a hobby, I certainly wouldn't want anyone from work, especially my supervisor, showing up in my audience without my knowing. Honestly, when I wanna watch streams of video games, I have more than enough channels to choose from. I didn't need to watch hers in particular. Jane never did end up coming out at work, but about a month after all of this, another employee did. Let's call him Eric, except about a week after my letter Eric came out as Ariel, a trans woman, keeping with our team's theme of Disney names. It felt only fitting. I realized immediately that I needed to make it absolutely clear that any kind of discrimination toward her wouldn't be tolerated under my supervision. Anyone harassing or disrespecting Ariel would answer directly to me. I also doubled down on educating myself about gender identity. I'd already started reading and learning before, but this real world situation gave me even more urgency. I was now managing a trans person, not as a vague possibility, but as my daily reality. Fortunately, my team was every bit as open-minded as I hoped there was an adjustment period as everyone got used to Ariel's new name and pronouns. #reddit #radditstory #askreddit #redditstories #askredditstories #storytime