Day 1 is over. I think I got caught up in the drama of the news reports. I’m not so worried about the demonstrations now.

There wasn’t much to do for the conference, seeing as I arrived in the early evening. I spent time through dinner with the baby boomer trump supporters I work directly with day to day. Afterward, some mid- to late-twenty-something colleagues from another department that I’ve been becoming familiar with — the department which is central to this entire workshop here in PR — invited me to spend time w them on the beach.

One of them is Puerto Rican herself, and she invited a friend who spent the day at the demonstrations. He told us all about it and showed us pictures from the day. It was so inspiring.

The day was really fun. They were all super kind and interesting. 

I’m a bit anxious now, though, us having parted ways for the night. They asked about my wedding band several times and I tried to tactfully dodge using pronouns. It worked, for the most part, though I believe they now now have suspicions of the gender of my marriage partner.

My anxiety is over the possibility of these conversations evolving between them outside of my  company. Their proximity to my Trump-supporting team members makes me scared. I haven’t really felt this way since my hometown — so completely and dangerously othered w no lifelines near me.

I’m thinking of having a conversation w my new work friends, because I feel they would get it if I stated it succinctly. Maybe it just being showing them a note saying simply:

“ I can’t ever tell you anything about who I’m married to, because this workplace will become incredibly hostile and unsafe for me if even the smallest piece of information comes out about them.”