“NO RETRIBUTION FOR BEING GAY?”: INEQUALITY IN GAY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES

Abstract

Sociological studies suggest that there is social change occurring in the acceptance of lesbians and gay men in the workplace. Compared to prior decades, there are more businesses that welcome, value, and even privilege nonheterosexual sexual identities and relationships. Few studies have analyzed workers' experiences in these types of work contexts. In this article, we explore the experiences of “out” LGB women and men who work for organizations that they consider “gay-friendly.” In-depth interviews demonstrated that, although gay and lesbian workers feel that they are accepted in “gay-friendly” organizations, they nevertheless described differential treatment because of their sexual identity. We discuss evidence of stereotyping, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination in their work experiences. Although the movement toward greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in the workplace has made significant progress, the transformation is so far incomplete. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this research for the study of equality in organizations.

We would like to thank Dana Britton, Julie Winterich, Sharon Bird, Ellen Slaten, Toni Watt, Jeff Jackson, and Tim Paetzold for comments on previous versions of this article. We would also like to thank John Lynxwiler and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article.

Notes

¹In this article, we use the term LGB (rather than LGBTQ) because all of the respondents in our study identified themselves as primarily lesbian, gay, or bisexual although a few noted that they also consider themselves queer or transgendered. Research by Schilt (2006) indicates that transsexuals or transgendered workers experience unique issues compared to LGB workers.

Terms used to describe race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and identity were self-identified by respondents.