Research

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Workplace Issues: Quick Take

Jun 15, 2020

POPULATION

It Is Difficult to Determine the Size of the LGBT Population

Stigma and methodological barriers make it difficult to get an accurate count of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) population.1 The following statistics are the best estimates from surveys around the world.

  • In Canada, 1.7% of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 59 are gay or lesbian, and an additional 1.3% are bisexual.2
  • In Japan, about 10% of the population (ages 20 to 69) identifies as LGBT or another sexual minority.3
  • In the United Kingdom, 2.2% are LGB.4
  • In the United States, 4.5% are LGBT.5
Governments Often Measure Only Same-Sex Couples

Because it can be very difficult to measure the LGBT population, some surveys measure the number of people in same-sex relationships.6 The following percentages are the best estimates from such surveys around the world.

  • In Australia, 0.9% of all couples are same-sex couples.7
  • In Canada, 0.9% of all couples are same-sex couples.8
  • In Germany, 0.5% of all couples are same-sex couples.9
  • In the United States, 1.5% of all couple-households are same-sex couple-households.10

WORKPLACE

Most Countries and States Do Not Provide Legal Protections for LGBT Employees

Seventy-seven countries prohibit discrimination in employment because of sexual orientation, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.11

  • On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. This means that workers across the US cannot be fired for being LGBT.12
    • Prior to the ruling, there was no state-level protection for sexual orientation or gender identity in 28 of the 50 US states.13
      • Out of an estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers aged 16 or older, nearly half (3.9 million) lived in states without statutory protections.14

In June 2017, the Canadian government amended the Human Rights Act to outlaw employment discrimination based on gender identity and expression.15

In September 2018, India’s Supreme Court struck down section 377 of India’s penal code, a colonial-era law that penalized consensual same-sex relations.16

Today, More Fortune 500 Companies Offer Benefits to Their LGBT Employees

As of 2020, 93% of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation. Ninety-one percent have non-discrimination policies that include gender identity. Many companies also provide other benefits.17

  • 53% include domestic partner benefits.
  • 65% include transgender-inclusive benefits.

Gender-diverse boards are more likely to advance LGBT-friendly workplace policies.18

Many LGBT People Work in Industries Highly Impacted by Covid-19

Early estimates indicate that more than 5 million LGBT employees may be affected by the pandemic.19

  • About 40% of LGBT employees work in industries where they face more exposure to infection and/or economic insecurity.20
    • 2 million (15%) of LGBT workers are in restaurants and food services.
    • 1 million (7.5%) work in hospitals.
LGBT Employees Often Face Hostility in the Workplace

One-fifth (20%) of LGBTQ Americans have experienced discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity when applying for jobs.21

  • LGBTQ people of color (32%) are more likely to experience this type of discrimination than white LGBTQ people (13%).22
  • 22% of LGBTQ Americans have not been paid equally or promoted at the same rate as their peers.23

Offensive jokes based on sexual orientation or gender identity are a form of harassment.24

  • Over half (53%) of LGBTQ employees heard lesbian and gay jokes at work, while 37% heard bisexual jokes and 41% heard transgender jokes in 2018.25
  • In China, 21% of transgender employees reported that they were harassed, bullied, or experienced discrimination at work.26

Transgender workers are subject to different types of harassment than LGB workers. This includes bathroom accessibility, being deliberately referred to by incorrect pronouns, and having to tolerate inappropriate questions, which can lead to employee disengagement and avoidance.27

Fear Prevents LGBT Employees From Bringing Their Full Selves to Work

Almost half (46%) of LGBTQ workers in the United States are closeted in the workplace.28

Nearly two thirds (59%) of non-LGBTQ employees believe it is “unprofessional” to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace.29

LGBT people often cover or downplay aspects of their authentic selves (e.g., by hiding personal relationships or changing the way they dress or speak) in order to avoid discrimination.30

  • Employees report feeling exhausted from spending time and energy concealing their sexual orientation (17%) and gender identity (13%).31
  • And concealment is not an option for transgender employees who wish to begin transitioning, unless they leave their current employers.32
  • More than a third (35%) of LGBT and slightly more than half (51%) of transgender employees in the UK disguised their identity at work for fear of discrimination.33
Inclusive Work Cultures Determine Whether LGBT Employees Leave or Stay34

A quarter (25%) of LGBTQ employees report staying in a job due to a LGBTQ-inclusive work environment.35

  • 10% of LGBTQ employees have left a job because the work environment did not accept LGBTQ people.36

Leadership

Openly LGBT Corporate Leaders Are Rare

Fewer than 0.3% of Fortune 500 board directors were openly LGBTI in 2020.37

In 2018, Beth Ford became the CEO of Land O’Lakes and the first openly gay woman to run a Fortune 500 company.38

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Catalyst, Ask Catalyst Express: LGBTQ+ Inclusion.

Catalyst, Ask Catalyst Express: Transgender Inclusion.

Catalyst, Flip the Script—Sexual Orientation in the Workplace (2017).

Catalyst, Flip the Script: Transgender in the Workplace—Actions (2018).

Catalyst, Flip the Script: Transgender in the Workplace—Words (2018).

Bloomberg Businessweek, “Gay Executives Talk About the Importance of Being Out at Work,” June 21, 2019.

Logan S. Casey, Sari L. Reisner, Mary G. Findling, Robert J. Blendon, John M. Benson, Justin M. Sayde, and Carolyn Miller, “Discrimination in the United States: Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Americans,” Health Services Research, vol. 54, no. S2 (December 2019).

Cornell University, “What Does the Scholarly Research Say About the Effects of Discrimination on the Health of LGBT People?,” What We Know: The Public Policy Research Portal.

Human Rights Campaign, “Restroom Access for Transgender Workers.”

ILGA, Map – Sexual Orientation Laws in the World (2019).

ILGA-Europe, Rainbow Europe 2020 (2020).

Mary Beth Maxwell, Ashland Johnson, Mark Lee, and Liam Miranda, 2018 U.S. LGBTQ Paid Leave Survey (Human Rights Campaign Foundation Public Education & Research, 2018).

Out Leadership, “LGBT+ CEO Business Briefs.”

DEFINITION: LGBT is the acronym most commonly used in the United States to address the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. The acronym can vary in a number of ways, including GLBT and GLB, and can include additional letters, such as Q (queer or questioning), I (intersex), or A (asexual). Some include a plus (+) after the acronym to denote additional communities.39 We use the LGBT acronym throughout this Quick Take, except in instances in which a source uses another variation.

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Workplace Issues (June 15, 2020).

  1. Sean Waite and Nicole Denier, “A Research Note on Canada’s LGBT Data Landscape: Where We Are and What the Future Holds,” Canadian Review of Sociology, vol. 56, no. 1 (2019): p. 93–117.
  2. Statistics Canada, “Same-Sex Couples in Canada in 2016,” The Daily, August 2, 2017.
  3. “Poll Shows 1 in 10 in Japan Identify as LGBT or Other Sexual Minorities,” The Japan Times, December 11, 2019.
  4. Office for National Statistics, Sexual Identity, UK: 2018 (March 6, 2020)
  5. The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, Adult LGBT Population in the United States (March 2019).
  6. Sean Waite and Nicole Denier, “A Research Note on Canada’s LGBT Data Landscape: Where We Are and What the Future Holds,” Canadian Review of Sociology, vol. 56, no. 1 (2019): p. 93–117.
  7. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Same-Sex Couples in Australia, 2016,” 2071.0 – Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016 (2018).
  8. Statistics Canada, “Same-Sex Couples in Canada in 2016,” The Daily, August 2, 2017.
  9. Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), “Datenreport 2018 – Kapitel 2: Familie, Lebensformen und Kinder,” (in German) (November 14, 2018): p. 52.
  10. US Census Bureau, “Table 1: Household Characteristics of Opposite-Sex and Same-Sex Couple Households,” 2018 American Community Survey (2019).
  11. Lucas Ramón Mendos, State-Sponsored Homophobia 2019: Global Legislation Overview Update (ILGA World, December 2019): p. 101-113.
  12. Adam Liptak, “Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules,” The New York Times, June 15, 2020.
  13. Human Rights Campaign, “Employment,” State Maps of Laws & Policies (2020).
  14. Kerith J. Conron and Shoshana K. Goldberg, “LGBT People in the US Not Protected by State Nondiscrimination Statutes,” (The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, April 2020).
  15. Human Rights Watch, “Canada: Events of 2017,” World Report 2018 (2018).
  16. Human Rights Watch, “India, Events of 2018,” World Report 2019 (2019).
  17. Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Corporate Equality Index 2020: Rating Workplaces on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Equality (2020): p. 6.
  18. Cordelia Fine, Victor Sojo, and Holly Lawford‐Smith, “Why Does Workplace Gender Diversity Matter? Justice, Organizational Benefits, and Policy,” Social Issues and Policy Review, vol. 14, no. 1 (2020): p. 58.
  19. Charlie Whittington, Katalina Hadfield, and Carina Calderón, The Lives & Livelihoods of Many in the LGBTQ Community Are at Risk Amidst COVID-19 Crisis (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2020).
  20. Charlie Whittington, Katalina Hadfield, and Carina Calderón, The Lives & Livelihoods of Many in the LGBTQ Community Are at Risk Amidst COVID-19 Crisis (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2020).
  21. National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of LGBTQ Americans (2017): p. 1.
  22. National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of LGBTQ Americans (2017): p. 11.
  23. National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of LGBTQ Americans (2017): p. 1.
  24. United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Harassment;” United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “What You Should Know About EEOC and the Enforcement Protections for LGBT Workers.”
  25. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 6.
  26. Danielle C. Lefebvre and José F. Domene, “Workplace Experiences of Transgender Individuals: A Scoping Review,” Asia Pacific Career Development Journal, vol. 3, no. 1 (March 2020).
  27. Joel Rudin, Tejinder Billing, Andrea Farro, and Yang Yang, “Bigenderism at Work? Organizational Responses to Trans Men and Trans Women Employees,” Organizational Management Journal (April 2020).
  28. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 6.
  29. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 6.
  30. Catalyst, What Is Covering? (December 11, 2014); Sejal Singh and Laura E. Durso, “Widespread Discrimination Continues to Shape LGBT People’s Lives in Both Subtle and Significant Ways,” Center for American Progress, May 2, 2017.
  31. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 7.
  32. Joel Rudin, Tejinder Billing, Andrea Farro, and Yang Yang, “Bigenderism at Work? Organizational Responses to Trans Men and Trans Women Employees,” Organizational Management Journal (April 2020).
  33. Chaka L. Bachmann and Becca Gooch, LGBT in Britain: Work Report (Stonewall, 2018).
  34. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 7.
  35. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 7.
  36. Deena Fidas and Liz Cooper, A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate for LGBTQ Workers Nationwide (Human Rights Campaign, 2019): p. 7.
  37. Out Leadership, “Fair Representation Might Lead to Better Outcomes in Times of Crisis,” April 7, 2020.
  38. Beth Kowitt, “The Latest Female CEO in the Fortune 500 Breaks a Barrier,” Fortune, July 27, 2018.
  39. Catalyst, LGBTQ+ Terms to Know (2018); University of California, Davis, “LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary.”