‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Hurts Workplace Performance

With the final repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in less than 30 days, the U.S. military is set to rid itself of a discriminatory policy that wasted countless millions of dollars and squandered needed talent - all so that self-congratulatory Christianists could feel better about themselves and point to DADT as proof of the correctness of their bigotry. But another form of DADT exists in the private business realm where employees are either afraid to come out or will face outright firing if their employer learns that they are LGBT. I suffered the latter consequence when a former firm merged with a larger law firm. And in this area, the closet is alive and well among professionals. I am not aware of a single openly gay attorney in a large law firm, there are no out CPA's and in the medical realm it's even worse. This ongoing discrimination and fear is destructive to the work environment and, as a new study has found, reduces workplace performance across the board. Here are some highlights from Miller-Mccune.com:

Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Don’t do your job as well. That’s the implication of newly published research, which links poorer job performance with uncertainty about a colleague’s sexual orientation.

“Supporters of policies that force gay and lesbian individuals to conceal their sexual orientation in the workplace argue that working with openly gay individuals undermines performance,” writes a trio of researchers led by UCLA’s Benjamin Everly. “We examine this claim in two studies and find the opposite effect.”

These findings, published the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, are certainly timely. The military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule, in which gay soldiers are discharged if they reveal their sexual orientation, will be repealed Sept. 20.

Social conservatives argue that serving with openly gay soldiers could harm troops’ “unity and effectiveness.” While unity is hard to quantify, effectiveness is not, and this study suggests allowing openly gay soldiers could actually enhance it.

The researchers found that, after controlling for their SAT math scores, “participants paired with an openly gay partner correctly answered significantly more questions on the math test than participants paired with an ambiguously gay partner.”

[T]he study suggests teammates do better work in an atmosphere of openness. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” appears to adversely impact not only closeted gay members of the military, but also the straight soldiers who work alongside them.

Bigotry and discrimination do carry a price both for the target and for those who are the bigots. Business owners ought to pay attention - as should elected officials such as Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.