Allies at Work: Creating a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Inclusive Work Environment by Hall David M

Author:Hall, David M. [Hall, David M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
Published: 2011-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Rejecting Punitive Case Study

Estefan is 26 years old and was openly gay but is now partially back in the closet. He originally came out during his freshman year of college. The first person he told was a girl in his dorm with whom he had grown close. Her response was to hug him and share how happy she was that he felt safe first disclosing this to her. With the support of a close friend, Estefan soon came out to others. He was never the activist type, never a guy who wanted to lead the gay pride parade. In fact, he wasn’t even the guy who attended the parade, though he supported the goals. He was never interested in being the center of attention.

Estefan majored in accounting and was brilliant with numbers. In college, he met his life partner, an artist. Upon graduation, they moved to a major East Coast city. Estefan’s partner was out, and they would be seen together at various art events in the city. His partner was on the board of a major lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. Estefan was strongly supportive but had no desire to be an activist himself. He supported the goals of the organization and admired the community leaders. However, Estefan would only make donations anonymously, in keeping with his preference for privacy.

Estefan was not out at work. His supervisor occasionally sent out emails for political fundraisers or events. The emails never included personal notes advocating for the politician or the cause. Instead, Estefan’s supervisor stressed the value of a strong community presence. However, most of the time these fundraisers were for elected officials or organizations that could only be described as anti-gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Of course Estefan never attended these events. In fact, he attended few work-sponsored events, because he wanted to be with his partner and worried that they would not be welcome. Instead, he could go to his partner’s events in the city without having to worry about being in the closet. He did have some concern about how missing work-related social activities might affect his future at the company, because being absent limited his networking opportunities.

The situation was challenging. Estefan felt that his supervisor was a good person. Estefan found the man to be kind and caring, always looking out for how his employees were feeling. He regularly complimented Estefan, even on occasion calling him brilliant. The only time Estefan felt particularly uncomfortable was when he received his boss’s emails about politicians or groups that he found hurtful and disparaging. He knew his supervisor was not a hurtful individual, but Estefan also concluded that his supervisor might have a value system that rejected homosexuality.

Estefan’s corporation posted a job opening for a manager in accounting. Estefan thought that he would be a strong candidate and knew that his major competition would be Sally, a talented coworker in his department. He and Sally had started working for the company at approximately the same time. Estefan had slightly better reviews, but Sally worked harder at being known.

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