Shahamat Uddin is a 25-year-old account supervisor at Praytell Agency who recalls that his first “real job” out of college was in a very traditional corporate culture with no affinity or employee resource groups (ERGs) for staff who identify as LGBTQ. He found himself “testing the boundaries of coming out” by name-dropping his partner.
All that changed when he came to Praytell, where even before his first day, Uddin received a list of all the ERGs at the company, welcoming him to join any. Seeing that there was a queer ERG, Shahama had a realization: “Oh, I don’t really have to come out at this place.” He also notes that Praytell’s willingness to have a queer ERG alone showed him that it was a safe place for authentic self-expression.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 15 million people, representing about 9% of the entire labor force, who identify as LGBTQ+, and roughly 21% are Gen Z (born after 1997). A recent survey from Indeed found that 72% came out at work within the past three years.
However, 26% of respondents are not out at work, citing fear of discrimination (43%), fear of harassment (35%), and concerns about career advancement (24%) as the top reasons. In 2023, we have seen the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills double across the U.S. according to Fast Company‘s recent essay on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation’s effect on the job market. The ACLU currently tracks 501 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.
This stands in sharp contrast to research that suggests leaders who support teams by being inclusive and creating psychological safety have a direct, positive impact on the bottom line. A report from Accenture finds that organizations with high levels of psychological safety experience 76% more engagement across the organization, 50% more productivity, and 27% reduction in turnover.
The International Trans Day of Visibility Project, led by former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, surveyed almost 3,000 people across the world and in various industries. Its latest report—the third in a series focusing on the state of harm and harassment in tech—had authors including information from consultations with DEI experts, startup leaders, and advocacy groups. The report noted that some workers described themselves as closeted or “soft-closeted,” which means employees aren’t as transparent as they could be about their sexuality at work.
Such is the case with Darragh Kilgallen, a 28-year-old queer woman who is a senior operations manager at Adonis, a tech startup headquartered in New York City. “My first boss out of college at Enigma was this fratty guy. He was super nice, but was definitely a boy-next-door type,” explains Kilgallen. “I remember he once mentioned a friend of his that was gay. And I was like, oh, okay. There’s someone in your life that is gay, and you weren’t weird when talking about it.” That made her felt comfortable when talking about her girlfriend at the time.
Alex Renaud, 23-year-old civil-engineer-in-training and landscape designer at a design firm located downtown Brooklyn, says that he hasn’t ever “come out so definitively” at his job either. The way it came up was when he mentioned his partner.
There was no official coming out to a supervisor at Praytell for Uddin either, or any of his team leads. His agency’s ERG structure and membership in the ERG was able to facilitate that for him. Just by being in his agency’s queer ERG, Uddin’s supervisors and team leads could “already know” about his queer identity “without [him] having to do the extra coming out for them.”
Uddin also adds that he felt safe coming out (or re-affirming that he’s queer to colleagues who know that he is in the ERG) in this small way. “My agency’s willingness to have a queer ERG alone showed me that it was a safe place for me to express who I am.”
Being a part of an ERG creates an immediate feeling of belonging but small behaviors by others on staff can make or break a work environment. Rajkumari Neogi, the CEO of iBelong explained this in an essay for Fast Company, “Exclusion always starts innocently but quickly moves us into a place of disconnection, distrust, and fear. Our bodies contract and our minds shift us into survival mode. If we truly want to embody a culture of ‘being kind,’ then we need to understand our own human neurology and identify our past experiences that lacked kindness.”
What makes the workplace feel more inclusive for queer people is the day-to-day interpersonal interactions and regulations for how to dress and exist in the office, according to Renaud. “I feel like those have a more dominating play in how I feel,” he says.
This sentiment squares with a finding in new report from LinkedIn which found that nearly 75% of LGBTQ+ professionals have code-switched to fit into their workplace and 64% of LGBTQ+ professionals wish there were more people like them in the workplace.
His firm has ERGs too, although the most significant factor that helped him feel like he belonged there has been the way the rest of his coworkers interact with him. In his experience, past work environments—particularly in engineering—that were less inclusive were dominated by men. After being in a series of professional settings led mainly by white men, Renaud felt a “breath of fresh air” stepping into a female dominated space.
“Women project managers are spearheading all my projects, and carry with them an awareness of each team members’ wellbeing and an eye for maintaining balance between delivering on project expectations and respecting coworkers’ boundaries,” he explains. “It can be as simple as checking in to see how my day is and being genuinely interested in learning about my life that has made me feel comfortable in my current job setting.”
According to a new study from the HRC’s Equality Rising Index, over a quarter of LGBTQ+ workers (26%), and over a third (36%) of transgender and non-binary workers, have searched for a different job as a result of an unaccepting working in an environment, signaling a growing need for companies to support LGBTQ+ employees.
For instance, DeAnne Assem, wellbeing leader at PwC, says the company offers personalized benefits and resources for people at “every stage of their lives.” That includes paid parental leave regardless of gender, and transgender-related medical coverage for certain procedures. PwC also has a Shine Inclusion Network, made up of over 3,300 members across the U.S. It helps to create a “supportive and engaging environment” for LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies via mentoring, networking and professional development, according to Assem.
Bailey Dobbs, a PwC associate who is trans underscores, “Trans people just want to exist. They want to be believed, validated, and loved, and PwC’s Shine Inclusion Network and transgender community has been so beautiful for me,” they say. “To have a community so easily accessible has made coming out as trans at work feel much less scary.”
Kilgallen also raves about upper management at her company, saying that they are “just really good people” who encourage employees to “have lives outside the office.” This was in contrast to her last job where she observed people working “insane hours” under peer pressure. Kilgallen explains: “It was a really toxic work environment, productivity was definitely prioritized over people.”
And yet, those workplaces persist. Jason* who is a Gen Z employee at a top-five global asset management company in the U.S. says he only talks about his sexuality with some close coworkers. Although his company has ERGs, he believes it’s a way “overcompensate” by checking DEI boxes. He sees these efforts as somewhat performative “whereas maybe if you were at a smaller place, it wouldn’t be the same.”
At his previous job, Jason was at a small investment bank, which he described as having a startup vibe with a team of some 50 people. “I had a very close relationship with the CEO,” he notes, “and I was pretty open there as well.”
But not for the reasons you might think. Jason explains that colleagues brought clients to strip clubs or to massages. “It was the wild west,” he recalls, “a shit show and definitely a lot of stuff in gray areas.” But in an environment where anything goes, Jason says he felt comfortable to be himself. “I guess if there was someone [who] was maybe homophobic or had prejudices, it would’ve been bad. There would be no one to have turned to and nothing to do about it. I guess I was fortunate in that sense,” he says.
When pressed about coming out formally at his current employer, Jason remains sanguine: “Why would I need to come out? To be a special snowflake? No one gives a shit.”
*Name has been changed to preserve privacy.
