1Center for American Progress | Gay and Transgender People Face Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
Gay and Transgender People Face High Ratesof Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
Data Demonstrate Need for Federal Law
Crosby Burns and Jeff Krehely May 2011
Gay and ransgender individuals coninue o ace widespread discriminaion in he workplace.* Sudies show ha anywhere rom 15 percen o 43 percen o gay peoplehave experienced some orm o discriminaion and harassmen a he workplace.Moreover, a saggering 90 percen o ransgender workers repor some orm o harass-men or misreamen on he job. Tese workplace abuses pose a real and immediaehrea o he economic securiy o gay and ransgender workers.Congress should work quickly o pass he Employmen Non-Discriminaion Ac, orENDA, o ensure ha all Americans are judged in he workplace based on heir skills,qualicaions, and he qualiy o heir work. Righ now, oo many o our counry’s gay and ransgender workers are being judged on heir sexual orienaion and gender iden-iy—acors ha have no impac on how well a person perorms heir job.
The numbers
Te Williams Insiue on Sexual Orienaion Law and Public Policy aggregaeda num- ber o surveys o deermine he exen o which gay and ransgender workers experiencediscriminaion and harassmen in he workplace. Teir ndings illusrae ha discrimi-naion and harassmen are pervasive:
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Fifteen percent to 43 percent of gay and transgender workers have experiencedsome form of discrimination on the job.
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Eigh percen o 17 percen o gay and ransgender workers repor being passed overor a job or red because o heir sexual orienaion or gender ideniy.
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en percen o 28 percen received a negaive perormance evaluaion or were passedover or a promoion because hey were gay or ransgender.
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Seven percen o 41 percen o gay and ransgender workers were verbally orphysically abused or had heir workplace vandalized.
* In this column, the term gay is used as an umbrella term for people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.
2Center for American Progress | Gay and Transgender People Face Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
Sraigh coworkers also ates o he presence o discriminaion and harassmen againsLGB workers. Te Williams Insiue’s repor ound ha 12 percen o 30 percen o sraigh workers winessed discriminaion in he workorce based on sexual orienaion.Conrolled experimens have ound consisen evidence o workplace discriminaion as well. When researchers send wo ses o mached resumes o major employers, and oneindicaes he applican is gay, employers warmly receive “gay” resumes ar less oen han“sraigh” resumes. Seven ou o eigh o hese sudies conrmed he exisence o anigay employmen discriminaion.ransgender individuals encouner workplace discriminaion and harassmen a evenhigher raes han gays and lesbians. Earlier his year, he Naional Cener or ransgenderEqualiy and he Naional Gay and Lesbian ask Forcereleaseda comprehensive sudy on ransgender discriminaion ha revealed near universal problems a he workplace:
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Ninety percent of transgender individuals have encountered some form of harass-ment or mistreatment on the job.
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Fory-seven percen o workers have experienced an adverse job oucome becausehey are ransgender. Tis includes: –Fory-our percen who were passed over or a job –weny-hree percen who were denied a promoion– And 26 percen who were red because hey were ransgender
The stories behind the numbers
Behind hese saisics are he hearbreaking sories o everyday Americans losing heir jobs based on characerisics ha have nohing o do wih heir job perormance. Vandy Beh Glennlos her jobwih he Georgia General Assembly when her boss redher because she was ransgender:
[My boss] told me I would make other people uncomortable, just by being mysel. Hetold me that my transition was unacceptable. And over and over, he told me it wasinappropriate. Ten he red me. I was escorted back to my desk, told to clean it out,then marched out o the building…I was devastated.
Brook Wais was gainully employed in Dallas, exas unil her managerred her immediaely aer she saw a picure on Brook’s cell phone o Brook and her girlriendkissing on New Year’s Eve:
I didn’t lose my job because I was lazy, incompetent, or unproessional. Quite the con-trary, I worked hard and did my job very well. However that was all discarded whenmy boss discovered I am a lesbian. In a single aernoon, I went om being a highly praised employee, to out o a job.
3Center for American Progress | Gay and Transgender People Face Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
And ocer Michael Carney was denied reinsaemenas a police ocer in Springeld,Massachusets because he old his supervisors ha he was gay:
I’m a good cop. But I’ve lost two and a hal years o employment ghting to get that jobback because I’m gay…I’m proud to be Irish-American. I’m proud to be gay, and I’m proud to be a cop in Springeld, MA.
The economic consequences of discrimination
Gay and ransgender individuals sufer rom socioeconomic inequaliies in large pardue o pervasive discriminaion in he workplace. Discriminaion direcly causes jobinsabiliy and high urnover, resuling in greaer unemploymen and povery raes orgay and ransgender people, as well as he wage gap beween gay and sraigh workers.Consider ha gay menearn10 percen o 32 percen less han similarly qualied he-erosexual males. Older gay and lesbian adulsexperiencehigher povery raes han heirheerosexual counerpars. And ransgender individualsarewice as likely o be unem-ployed and are our imes as likely o live in povery. Nearly 20 percen have been or arecurrenly homeless.Companies should care abou hese numbers i hey are in he business o boosingpros.ime and again , researchers have demonsraed ha discriminaiondiminishes
produciviy, job saisacion, and he menal and physical healh o all employees.
Enacting legislation that provides real protection
Gay and ransgender individuals’ legal and social sanding is improving despie heirunair and unequal reamen in he workplace. An increasing number o saes, munici-paliies, and businesses have adoped nondiscriminaion proecions ha prohibidiscriminaion based on sexual orienaion and gender ideniy.Te public, oo, has increasingly voiced supporor employmen proecions and work-
place airness or gay and ransgender workers. And more and more gay workers arecoming ou a he workplace, a sign ha workplace climaes have become more accep-ing or a leas oleran overall.Neverheless, gay and ransgender people coninue o lack ull workplace proecionsaforded o women, people o color, veerans, seniors, and he disabled. Under ederallaw i is sill legal o re someone or being gay or ransgender.
Where sae or local lawsexis, gay and ransgender workers le discriminaion complains a comparable raesand in some case higher raes han oher proeced classes such as gender and race. BuCongress has hus ar ailed o incorporae gay and ransgender workers ino employ-men laws ha shield hese and oher groups rom workplace discriminaion naionwide.
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Gay and Transgender People Face High Rates of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
Crosby Burns and Jeff Krehely discuss the high rates of workplace discrimination against gay and transgender people, and why lawmakers should swiftly enact the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
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