Majority of Workers Still Hide Sexual Orientation at Work

A new report confirms what I suspect most of us already had figured out: most LGBT employees hide their sexual orientation at work. It is an obvious result when the majority of states still provide no employment non-discrimination protections to their LGBT citizens. The irony to me is that all states have employment protections against workplace discrimination based on religion - which is EXACTLY the basis for anti-gay discrimination. But for religious discrimination kept alive by the professional Christian set and other religious extremists who demand that all live by their imposed religious beliefs, we gays would likely have few employment discrimination issues. Why the courts cannot see what's plain as day is beyond maddening. One can only hope that as religious belief fades - a topic by itself for another post - this circumstance will change. Here are highlights from the report which can be found here:

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[S]ignificant numbers of LGBT employees continue to experience a negative workplace climate that appears to be unaffected by organizational policies and which varies by location, manager and work team. The majority of LGBT workers (51 percent) hide their LGBT identity to most at work, the simplest indication that more work needs to be done to translate inclusive policies into an inclusive climate. Hiding one’s LGBT identity is even more pronounced among younger workers. Only 5 percent of LGBT employees ages 18 to 24 say they are totally open at work, compared to more than 20 percent in older age cohorts.

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Employees who are not open at work experience more negative outcomes from their workplace environment that affect productivity, retention and professional relationships. For example, 54 percent of LGBT employees who are not open to anyone at work report lying about their personal lives, compared to 21 percent of employees open about their LGBT identity. LGBT workers’ inability to participate honestly in everyday conversations hinders trust and cohesion with their co-workers and superiors.

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Derogatory comments and jokes still happen at work and are a major indicator that it is unsafe to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity at work. A total of 58 percent of LGBT workers say someone at work makes a joke or derogatory comment about LGBT people at least once in a while.

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[D]omestic partner benefits have little effect on the number of employees who remain closeted. A total of 23 percent of employees at companies without equal benefits are not open to anyone, compared to 22 percent of employees at companies with the benefits. And whether a company has an EEO policy inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity does not change the number of employees who are not open to anyone (26 percent in both cases).
relationship.

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Overall, the report is pretty depressing in that it confirms that on the work front, most LGBT employees live in fear and feel the need play act a role that they perceive will be acceptable to their supervisors and company leaders. I played that game myself for over 30 years and it is very exhausting - even when one has not come out to themselves yet as gay. It definitely detracts from productivity and makes for a very unhappy work environment. And again, it ALL traces ultimately to religious based discrimination.