At its core, diversity is a dimension used to differentiate groups and people from each other. Diversity empowers people to respect and appreciate the characteristics that make them different in terms of age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and nationality. Diversity at the workplace is the intentional employment of a workforce made of individuals with the above-mentioned varying characteristics. The issue of workplace diversity and equality management is a well-established phenomenon of HR practice in organizations. In the late 80s, workplace diversity was mainly centered on career outcomes of a particular gender or outline. However, in recent years, HR has paid greater attention to other diversity dimensions, particularly sexual orientation. Specifically, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees face numerous challenges at the workplace, making managing diversity and equality from their standpoint an essential role of HR (Ozturk & Tatli 2016, p. 783). Based on the history of gay and lesbians, activism gained more traction in the 20 th century. Since the Stonewall Inn gay bar riots in 1969, liberation for this group has been on the upward spiral in the preceding years. The gay male community became the LGB movement. In the preceding decade, the trans and intersex voices called for inclusivity, hence realizing the LGBTQ Community. Since its formation, the group has been at the forefront of fighting for equality and against discrimination against transgender people at the workplace. Through campaigns, LGBTQ has made substantial progress in changing national reforms to ensure its members' inclusivity and diversity.
LGBTQ Movement
Abbreviated as LGBTQ, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer movement has been highly influential in advocating for its members' rights at the workplace. Transgender individuals face numerous vocational challenges across the globe. According to a recent study by the International Labor Organization on sexual orientation and gender identity, findings reveal that transgender individuals suffer the highest discrimination rate at the workplace (Hoel, Lewis & Einarsdóttir 2021, p. 373). Therefore, the LGBTQ has been at the forefront of working on these issues to ensure transgender treated equally as their counterparts.
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The mission of LGBT is to collaborate with other people and organizations to foster positive relationships with staff, communities, and others. Through this mission, the movement has been fighting for safety, equality and challenge intolerance of transgender people. The core values that LGBTQ holds include gender identity, gender expression work, and sexual orientation. The movement intersects these approaches to fight workplace oppression and discrimination. Generally, the movement is committed to promoting equality and respect for all people. The movement has been able to partially achieve its mission and goals, looking at its historical background.
From a historical standpoint, anyone identified as gay or strayed from the traditionally assigned gender given at birth would be perceived as a psychopath or mentally defective. Furthermore, there were various treatments for these individuals, including conversion therapy, sterilization, and castration lobotomies (Hubbard & Griffiths 2019, p. 940). These pressures were extreme as transgender people were discriminated against based on their sexual orientation. Although there are still apparent challenges of workplace discrimination and inequality for transgender at the workplace, significant progress has been made. There has been substantial improvement and progress of legal protections and civil rights available to this community. The progress is attributable to the campaigns undertook by LGBTQ to change for legislation.
LGBTQ movement has shaped its campaign strategies around the Equity Agenda, driven by the fundamental belief that substantial change happens from top to bottom. Therefore, the movement has pursued inclusive policies concerning diversity, discrimination, and equality of transgender people at the workplace. Typically, these campaigns have provided the foundation for possible legislation at the national level. Over the years, the LGBTQ campaigns have yielded success as a result of the strategies they use.
Gains such as Gender Recognition Act (2004), Sex Discrimination Regulations (1999), and the UK Equality Act (2010) are some of the successful laws that have changed to enshrine the rights of transgender into legislation in the UK. The success of these changes is mainly a result of the aggressive campaigns by the LGBTQ movement. Also, the legislative protection against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the United Kingdom is traceable to the Employment Equality Sexual Orientation Regulation EESOR (2003) (Ozturk & Tatli 2016, p. 785). The passing of the legislation was based on the rationale of harmonizing the national legislation with that of the European Employment Directive of 2000.
Current Discrimination Legislation for Transgender Employees
In recent years, the UK has outdone itself in protecting transgender employees from discrimination at the workplace. Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the UK is contained within the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act of 2010 consolidated to replace the existing equality law, including the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), with a single Act (Stephenson, Persadie, Bissessar & Esnard, 2020, p. 155). Therefore, discrimination against transgender employees is illegal in the U.K. The Equality Act (2010) defines nine protected characteristics where sexual orientation and gender reassignment are one of them (Alexandra Beauregard, Arevshatian, Booth, and Whittle 2018, p. 888). The Act also covers areas such as providing services as areas of protection from discrimination for transgender.
Under the Equality Act (2010), a transgender employee is protected from being discriminated against if they are proposing to undergo, is in the process, or has undergone gender reassignment. According to the Act, gender reassignment does not necessarily mean that an individual must undergo medical treatments/procedures. On the contrary, it refers to the personal process of transitioning from one’s birth gender to the gender of one’s preference. Despite discrimination of LGBTQ employees being rife, it is not unusual to find employers applying harsh measures and discriminating against them at work or even during the transition process. Furthermore, research reveals that LGBTQ people are more likely to experience discrimination and violence at the workplace than the rest of the population (Murphy, Thomas, Cobb & Hartman 2020, p. 10). Besides transition, there has also been discrimination from a hiring perspective. There has been little employment of LGBTQ people in recent years. Most recently, a case law involving Moore v Debenhams reveals how this group is discriminated against in employment opportunities. The transgender individual was denied a position at Debenhams in Northern Ireland because of her gender identity, despite performing well in the interview. The company was fined on the rationale that employers are liable for their discriminative behavior towards transgender employees.
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
Despite the legal structures, homosexuality is still associated with discrimination and stigmatization at the workplace. Theory and research have revealed consistency in indicating that discrimination evokes negative attributions towards transgender employees and lead to significant prejudice. For example, a prejudiced transgender employee may be guarded about expressing overt or even coming out but may unintentionally exhibit their gender identity in subtle ways. A recent study in the UK concerning transgender rights revealed that over 50% of the transgender employees fear coming out and living under their preferred gender expressions due to discrimination and unequal treatment (Thoroughgood, Sawyer & Webstar, 2017 p. 100). Due to the growing literature on the management of sexual orientation diversity, several studies that focus on managing diversity and equality from a gender standpoint have been conducted to cover the theoretical gap and ensure inclusivity organizational context for all.
Rumens, De Souza & Brewis (2019, p. 593) reveal that one of the core reasons behind discrimination against transgender is heteronormativity. At its core, heteronormativity is the hegemonic normalizing of heterosexuality. It permeates all facets of transgender life and significantly promotes homophobic behaviors and practices such as discrimination at the workplace. Regardless of whether they have come out or not, the LGBTQ people experience discrimination the to the normalization of heterosexuality. Coming out is regarded as one of the most critical decisions a transgender employee has to make. The rationale is based on the uncertain perceptions by the employer and colleagues. With rampant workplace discrimination, transgender people may feel pressured to come out because they have to repeat the process each time they change jobs.
Besides coming out, another issue of concern is wage inequality. The concept of wage inequality between transgender and heterosexual employees has been widely discussed, with findings revealing that the former people are paid less due to their sexual identity (Orztuk & Tatli 2016 p. 790). The rationale for fewer earnings is based on the apparent gender stereotypes. These gender stereotypes, however, have been challenged by queer theory. At its core, the queer theory emphasizes the fluid performed nature of sexuality and socially established norms of sexual and gender classifications. Based on the theory, these sexual norms that permeate the workplace are the core reasons why discrimination against transgender is very high (Krishna Mehta 2020, p.2278533720910849.). Better equality and diversity management is crucial in employment as it brings immense benefits for the organization.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion, the LGBTQ movement has made substantial progress in managing equality and diversity in the workplace. Furthermore, their campaigns have been a foundation for national legislative amendments. However, LGBTQ people's discrimination is high in the U.K. regardless of legislative structures. However, diversity and equality can be better managed through several proactive actions. First, it should be made mandatory that all workplaces have a transgender workplace equality policy. The rationale of the recommendation is based on the fact that the policy will help reinforce the organizational commitment to workplace equality and diversity (Hossain, Atif, Ahmed & Mia 2019, p. 10). Secondly, employers should take the responsibility of communicating and training staff on the available equality and diversity policies and the need for compliance. This will help ensure that employees treat transgender colleagues with respect. The organization will also communicate that it has zero-tolerance for bullying, harassment, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Lastly, organizations should create a recruitment process that is LGBTQ-friendly. To recruit the best transgender talent, organizations should tailor their recruitment process to include this group. For example, they can offer internship opportunities and offer full-time employment after the internship is complete. Creating a recruiting process that is friendly to LGBTQ will ensure that they are considered for positions.
References
Alexandra Beauregard, T., Arevshatian, L., Booth, J.E. and Whittle, S., 2018. Listen carefully: transgender voices in the workplace. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 29 (5), pp.857-884.
Hoel, H., Lewis, D., and Einarsdóttir, A., 2021. Sexual orientation and workplace bullying. Dignity and Inclusion at Work , pp.363-391.
Hossain, M., Atif, M., Ahmed, A. and Mia, L., 2019. Do LGBT workplace diversity policies create value for firms?. Journal of Business Ethics , pp.1-17.
Hubbard, K.A. and Griffiths, D.A., 2019. Sexual offense, diagnosis, and activism: A British history of LGBTIQ psychology. American Psychologist , 74 (8), p.940.
Krishna Mehta, N.K., 2020. Synergistic Use of Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, Queer Theories, and Employment Relation Theories: A Perspective for Sustainable Transgender Inclusion at the Workplace. Business Perspectives and Research , p.2278533720910849.
Murphy, L.D., Thomas, C.L., Cobb, H.R. and Hartman, A.E., 2020. A review of the LGBTQ+ work-family interface: What do we know and where do we go from here?. Journal of Organizational Behavior .
Ozturk, M.B., and Tatli, A., 2016. Gender identity inclusion in the workplace: broadening diversity management research and practice through the case of transgender employees in the UK. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 27 (8), pp.781-802.
Rumens, N., De Souza, E.M. and Brewis, J., 2019. Queering queer theory in management and organization studies: notes toward queering heterosexuality. Organization Studies , 40 (4), pp.593-612.
Stephenson, J.H., Persadie, N., Bissessar, A.M. and Esnard, T., 2020. Equality Laws Compared: The Caribbean, the UK, and the USA. In Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in Caribbean Organizations and Society (pp. 157-183). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Thoroughgood, C.N., Sawyer, K.B. and Webster, J.R., 2017. What lies beneath How paranoid cognition explains the relations between transgender employees' perceptions of discrimination at work and their job attitudes and wellbeing. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 103 , pp.99-112.
