Are you "out" in your professional life?

I came out at work 10, almost 11 years ago. I worked at a campground with ~40 coworkers, most of which were rednecks. Of the 40, 2 or 3 refused to even admit they knew, 2 took it horribly, one of which apologized a few weeks later. The others were perfect.

I've been out in my 3 jobs since then. I now work for a 50 year old indian couple, managing their hotels. They're good friends, and he even asks me about my dating life frequently. He's funny, albeit ocassionally stupidly annoying questions. I foster an open work environment, I have employees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Jamaica, several south American countries, etc. I have one lesbian employee, one bisexual, and a handful of others through the years. I guess its one of the advantages of being the boss. I get to set the mood.

 

I'm not out at work yet. I'm a researcher in a graduate program. I constantly debate whether to come out at work or not. I wouldn't mind coming out to my labmates and other students in the program, I bet they would be fine with it. I'm just worried that my adviser and graduate committee's opinion of me as a researcher may get negatively impacted by my sexual orientation, and recommendations in the science field can make or break your career. Not everyone in science is liberal and open-minded, especially here in the South. Yet, I'm tired of being closeted because I hang out a lot with my labmates, and keeping the "straight" facade is becoming tiresome.