i declined the invitation to go out socially with him and explained to him that i thought it would jeopardize what at the time i considered to be a very good working relationship. i had a normal social life with other men outside of the office. i believed then, as now, that having a social relationship with a person who was supervising my work would be ill-advised. i was very uncomfortable with the idea and told him so.
i thought that by saying no and explaining my reasons my employer would abandon his social suggestions. however, to my regret, in the following few weeks, he continued to ask me out on several occasions. he pressed me to justify my reasons for saying no to him. these incidents took place in his office or mine. they were in the form of private conversations which would not have been overheard by anyone else.
my working relationship became even more strained when judge thomas began to use work situations to discuss sex. on these occasions, he would call me into his office for reports on education issues and projects, or he might suggest that, because of the time pressures of his schedule, we go to lunch to a government cafeteria. after a brief discussion of work, he would turn the conversation to a discussion of sexual matters.
his conversations were very vivid. he spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes. he talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises or large breasts involved in various sex acts. on several occasions, thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess.
because i was extremely uncomfortable talking about sex with him at all and particularly in such a graphic way, i told him that i did not want to talk about these subjects. i would also try to change the subject to education matters or to nonsexual personal matters such as his background or his beliefs. my efforts to change the subject were rarely successful.
throughout the period of these conversations, he also from time to time asked me for social engagements. my reaction to these conversations was to avoid them by eliminating opportunities for us to engage in extended conversations. this was difficult because at the time i was his only assistant at the office of education -- or of
fice for civil rights.
during the latter part of my time at the department of education, the social pressures and any conversation of his offensive behavior ended. i began both to believe and hope that our working relationship could be a proper, cordial, and professional one.