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Introduction
I do not pretend for one moment that at present being open about your homosexual orientation is anything but difficult or at times dangerous.
Workplaces reflect society. As society has negative attitudes towards gay men and women it is unsurprising that so too does the workplace 1. Victimisation can occur to even the most highly sought after employees. A recent study of gay Harvard MBA alumni detailed everything from gossip to gay-bashing, blackmailing and dismissal 2. Women entering management must also deal with discrimination but do not do so in a comparative environment of hatred. There was, and still is in some companies, entrenched opposition to women entering the workforce. However such opposition is usually founded on economic concerns or on gender role expectations. Working women, as a group, do not face systemic hatred or violence to anywhere near the same degree as homosexual workers 3. Comparable cases can be found surrounding the entry of people of colour into the general workforce in the US where historic racism caused similar levels of hatred and discrimination 4. Like homophobia, racism is based on outrageous myths. Unlike homophobia, racism is now covered strongly by legislation and most corporations are at least sensitive to the issue. Yet the debate has only begun to draw the parallels, something that has not been to the pleasure of homophobic women or people of colour. As example in early September 1996 the US Senate passed a bill that defines for the first time that a marriage is "a union between one man and one woman" in order to deny legal recognition of homosexual partnerships. It elicited the following comment:
"As an African American, I am deeply offended by homosexual claims that they suffer the same discrimination that people of colour have suffered ... politicians who invoke the images of the civil rights movement and throw around terms like 'racist' and 'bigot' are taking something decent and honourable and using it to disguise bizarre sexual behaviour." 5. Almost every homosexual who has worked in a corporate environment has their personal accounts of homophobia. As a group and at a minimum homosexuals are consistently denied opportunities and advancement at work and are unequally treated under benefit schemes because of their sexual orientation. When discussing the problems many gay employees face at work it is important to make a distinction between those of their colleagues that hate or fear homosexuals with malice and those that are unaware of the problems but have no deliberate anti-gay bias. Many nations have included sexuality in anti-discrimination legislation and corporations are bound to comply with these. However, much of this legislation is vaguely worded (I would argue deliberately) and this raises questions about how much faith gays should have in laws alone 6 I believe that legislation of this kind matters little if basic respect is missing. I argue that such respect for homosexuals will only come if gay men and women are open about their sexuality. The risk is that openness invites discrimination and victimisation in today's social environment. Nevertheless, I believe it is better for a gay or lesbian employee to be as open about their sexuality as possible and that only by doing so will the situation improve.
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Footnotes for this page |
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1 | What makes the workplace different is that most gays need to earn a living and cannot deal with discrimination in this particular forum as they can in many others; that is, by removing themselves. |
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2 | Friskopp & Silverstein, Straight Jobs, Gay Lives, Simon & Shuster, 1995 |
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3 | A US Department of Justice paper (which has been largely surpressed and ignored by successive administrations since publication) reported that "Homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims of hate crime..." ref: http://gopher.well.sf.ca.us:70/o/politics/activist.tools/how.to.win/g Conceding this fact, as with conceding that 30% of youth suicides are amoung gay and lesbian youths, may lead to a desire to tackle the root causes of homphobia and this is an anathema for the powerful Religious Right - they seen quite prepared to allow bashings, murders and suicides to continue in order to sustain their dogma based view of the World. Yet, to do this seems at odds with the core tememant of their own Christian faith as expressed in the Bible upon which all else hangs (see Romans 13, Galatians 5:14 etc) - the Religious Right have sidestepped this issue by inventing the term "tough love" and the mantra "love the sinner, hate the sin". |
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4 | It is difficult today to imagine that it was only as recently as 1967 that the US Supreme Court finally struck down as unconstitutional anti-miscegenation laws criminalising interracial marriage |
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5 | US Senate passes 'gay bashing' law, Melbourne Star Observer, 13 September 1996, p 5 This refers to the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) which, while banning state recognition of same-sex partnerships, does nothing to address the 50% divorce rate, the break-up of families and consequent development problems among children of these relationships - none of which, of course, have much to do with gay men and women but everything to do with heterosexuality. DOMA may well be considered a political ruse designed to embarrass President Clinton and galvanise support behind the Religious Right. Such opinions also overlook that Bayand Rustin, organiser of Martin Luther King's historic 1963 march on Washington, was gay and that he took the title of deputy in order that the march not be discredited by association with homosexuals - one wonders how both Rustin and King would have acted today. King's own tolerance is in marked contrast to his 'successor' Farakhan who has characterised himself with virulently anti-gay sentiments |
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6 | Legal protection against discrimination varies throughout Australia and ranges from Tasmania which still classifies male homosexual sex as a criminal offense carrying a goal sentence (recently increased) of upto 25 years through to NSW which moved from lagging in the mid-1980s to now having very inclusive anti-discrimination legislation. (The Tasmanian laws, with which most Tasmanians disagree, were legislated over by the previous Federal government using Australia's international agreements to protect basic human rights. Nevertheless they remain in the statute books and a case has yet to test the exact legal position of gay men in that state. As with many Anglo cultures, it has never been illegal to be lesbian or have lesbian sex).[Update since publication: the Tasmanian laws were altered in 1997 and it is no longer a criminal act for men to have sex with each other. The age of consent is 17 years for both heterosexuals and homosexuals]. The position in Victoria is somewhat between with anti-discrimination legislation contained in an act that is ambiguous and couched in language deferring to some of the worst gay-hate myths. Gay men and women are specifically offered no discrimination protection in workplaces where they are in contact with children or in workplaces 'controlled' by religious organisations. This, for example, offers no protection to the many homosexual teachers and panders to one of the most outrageous falsehoods - namely that homosexuals are disproportionately represented as child molesters and will 'recruit' children to homosexuality. Independent research agrees on this point. As example - a study by Denver Children's Hospital reported in 1992 that children were 100 times more likely to be molested by a family member than by a gay man or lesbian - see website http://gopher.well.sf.ca.us:70/o/political/activist.tools/how.to.win/g Non-discrimination legislation containing homophobia is disingenuous to say the least. |
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This work remains the property of the author ([email protected]) and of the University of Melbourne and may not be reproduced, stored or edited in any way without the expressed permission of the author. It may be quoted for academic purposes provided the author is acknowledged. |
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