In Is it safe to bring myself to work? Understanding LGBTQ experiences of workplace dignity from the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, authors Sarah J. Baker and Kristen Lucas claim that people who identify as non-heterosexual and non-cis gender will likely face bullying, discrimination, harassment, hurtful jokes and taunts, and ostracism throughout their careers. To understand the extent and effects of homophobic, transphobic, and queerphobic attitudes of employers and coworkers, the authors conducted semi structured interviews with 36 LGBTQIA+ working adults from various organizational affiliations in the United States.
Once the responses were collected and analyzed, the authors coded them into four categories of identity sensitive dignity threats experienced by LGBTQIA+ individuals in the workplace: social harm, autonomy violations, career harm, and physical harm. The responses in the interviews showed that the way LGBTQIA+ individuals were (and are) being treated in the workplace drastically influences their own self perceptions.
Because of these disturbing findings, the authors also identified protection strategies throughout the responses that other LGBTQIA+ members in the workforce can implement to “(re)claim” their dignity and protect themselves from threats and harm. The strategies are avoiding harm by seeking safe spaces, deflecting harm with sexual identity management, offsetting identity devaluations by emphasizing instrumental value, and creating safe spaces for authenticity and dignity.
The authors of this article encourage LGBTQIA+ groups to discuss this idea of dignity in the workplace with organizations to address injustices. They hope that these conversations can start small and develop into a greater understanding that every human being deserves respect and has worth. They advocate for bringing people together on the basis of not only the differences discussed in their article, but others form of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, religion, and (dis)ability.
Figure 1:
This text was a piece of transcript of one of the interviews with a bisexual woman named Phoenix who works as a college speech coach. She had attacks to her autonomy by her boss who had a problem with her sexual identity and repeatedly made intrusive and offensive comments like the one above.
(In this study, autonomy was defined as: “to have control over one’s life and for others to refrain from colonizing that life and to keep a respectful distance” (Baker and Lucas p.7)
Figure 2:
This text was a piece of transcript of one of the interviews with a gay college professor who struggled to find a place to work. This excerpt depicts a summary of his process of how he narrowed it down from the lenses of a member of the LGBTQIA+.
This article gives readers insight about how prevalent discrimination towards LGBTQIA+ members is and provides examples on the types of brutal attacks they endure. The excerpts of the interview transcript throughout the article is important because we are able to hear about oppression from the people who are actually experiencing. However, the “experiences” are still limited because the makeup of participants in the study was mostly white gay males. I think it is extremely important to hear more about an intersectional approach from women and BIPOC. I also would like more updated statistics since many of the other studies mentioned were from more than 10 years ago from 2021. Additionally, while I appreciated the protection strategies for LGBTQIA+ individuals, I also would like to hear more about being an ally. To further my own understanding, I found a video that explains 8 steps towards being an LGBTQIA+ ally below.
How to be a good LGBTQIA+ Ally
- Educate yourself on the community (this includes terminology)
- Do not make assumptions
- Do not ever out someone
- Be conscious of your language
- Do not let slurs slide in others
- Do not let others to make queerphobic jokes
- Stand up for others
- Make space for LGBTQIA+ community
A Workplace Divided: Understanding the climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide, published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
These statistics look at the different reasons why LGBTQ+ are not “open” in the workplace. It is interesting to see how gender and sexual identity influence how people approach work in the morning.
References
Baker, S. J., & Lucas, K. (2017, June 1). Is it safe to bring myself to work? Understanding LGBTQ experiences of workplace dignity. Wiley Online Library. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cjas.1439.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation. (2021). A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide. HRC. https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/assets/resources/AWorkplaceDivided-2018.pdf?mtime=20200713131850&focal=none.
Jossell, S. (2021, June 8). The Progress Pride Flag Is Getting an Intersex-Inclusive Makeover. them. https://www.them.us/story/progress-pride-flag-intersex-inclusive-makeover.
MyWorkplaceHealth. (2020, May 15). How to be a good LGBTQ+ Ally. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ddlNFqWyOU.