Trevor Craig

The sophomore year between my sophomore and junior year of college, I told my parents I had a job in Des Moines, Iowa, and I wasn't going to stay home.

I lied.

There was anything I could do to not live at home with my non-drinking Mormon parents when I was secretly gay, except for it wasn't so secret.

I moved to Iowa and I stayed with a friend and I stayed on her couch, even though she promised me a bed.

I stayed on the couch, no air conditioning because I could not live at home.

And I talked her into getting me a job at a restaurant.

This restaurant was one of those Japanese-style restaurants where they cook in front of you.

There was zero Japanese people who worked there.

There was also zero gay people who worked there.

So my first day coming in, I was told I'd be a server because I wanted that money.

But what I ended up doing is working in the cash office because I looked trustworthy and I could count past 10 and give change.

So that service office had a little window and I looked out through that window, but if you stood a little bit to the side, I couldn't see you.

And the girl who was training me, we'll call her Sarah, was way more confident about my gayness than I was.

And she would see guys standing and looking at me and she'd yell out, Scotty, do you have a problem?

Do you want to say something?

As much as you're staring at him, I think you have a crush.

And I was terrified because I did not want to get hate-crimed in Iowa.

Eventually, I got just as strong about it as she did and would yell at people just as much as she would and had nothing to do with any of their nonsense.

And that eventually moved me into being a server.

The whole restaurant was run by a general manager.