I got the job at the D.C. pretrial service agency, and I started off at the bottom of the barrel as a drug-testing technician. In D.C., there are more African American men in the criminal-justice system than any [other group]. And in society, the average black male already has strikes against them. I am an openly gay, African American man, and so I am like “wow” that's already three strikes against me: I’m black, male, and gay. I’ve always wanted to change the stigma that all gay, black men want to do is party. I definitely have a great job, and I am responsible.

Also, in the prison system, the LGBT community is often mistreated and there is not a lot of protection for its members. They are just thrown in there. They are mistreated by the prisoners and by the guards. That's one thing I fight to stop by engaging with the other law enforcement agencies. Making sure that no one has to experience injustice is the reason why I have gotten into what I do, and I take it very seriously. I see so many people being mistreated, even the people who work there. There's not too many openly gay people in my office, and when I [was hired] there actually weren’t any out gay or lesbian people in my agency [that I knew of].

Green: What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

Nichols: I am a pretrial-service officer in the diagnostic unit, and I have been doing this almost 10 years now. I work on the second shift, from 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., and when I come to work I am responsible for preparing reports for the defendants that are arrested in arraignment court. We run their fingerprints through the FBI database to compile a criminal history, and once we do that, we write a report and make recommendations to the court of what the conditions of release should be based upon flight risks and community safety. We make sure we provide the court with updated information as far as addresses and employment. We update compliance information, so if someone is on probation or parole and they do get in trouble, we contact the probation or parole officer.

Green: How did you feel, when you came out, about being one of few openly gay people in your workplace?

Nichols: After I came out—I don't want to say that I brought them out—but there have been more people who have felt comfortable enough to come out because I am telling my story and they see I don't change for anyone. What you get is what you get. In this day and age, everyone has this filter. My life has no filter.

When I came for the interviews, I actually didn't even think I got the job. A week later, I got a call back saying, "Hey you got the job." On my first day, it was like [people in my office] had seen Frankenstein walk through the door. There was a whole bunch of whispering and people were coming from different offices to look and see who I was. It was almost like a freak-show; that's what it felt like to me.