Fifty-three percent of foundation staff members who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or “queer” are not “fully out” at their workplaces, compared with 46 percent of staff in the corporate sector, according to a new study.
At foundations that do not have a social-justice or LGBTQ mission, about 20 percent more staff members had not revealed their sexual identity. The report said staffs had 16.2 percent gay, lesbian, and bisexual people on the staff or on the boards of foundations.
The findings are from a Funders for LGBTQ Issues report. Thirty-six foundations participated, and 947 individual responses were recorded. For the study, Funders for LGBTQ Issues collaborated with Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals, SMU DataArts, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund.
“We expected a higher percentage of people to be out across the board. It was shocking, surprising, and alarming,” said Lyle Matthew Kan, lead author and director of research and communications for Funders for LGBTQ Issues. “To see philanthropy performing comparatively worse to the corporate sector was surprising to us.”
Other findings cited in the report said one staff member in 10 LGBTQ has left a job because the workplace was “not very accepting,” adding that “out” LGBTQ employees enjoy greater job satisfaction, stronger job commitment, better health outcomes, and higher productivity compared with “closeted” LGBTQ employees.
The report’s findings didn’t look at each group individually, so it was not able to say whether transgender workers, for example, encountered more problems than the others. However, Kan said it’s likely that some groups are more likely to face discrimination.
Generally, LGBTQ people in philanthropy are more likely to be out the more senior their position, Kan said, adding that these individuals may perceive that it’s safer to be out in a position of power.
For example, nearly 73 percent of board members at any foundation said they were out at work. About 62.5 percent of CEOs were out, but only 31 to 37 percent of program, support, and other staff were out.
Experts generally are not surprised by the gap. Kristi Andrasik, a youth and social-service program officer at the Cleveland Foundation and a researcher on LGBTQ programs, released a survey last year with a colleague that asked LGBTQ workers at mainstream foundations to offer their perspectives.
That survey, called “Reaching Our Unknown Queer Colleagues to Catalyze Mainstream Funding,” collected responses from nearly 60 people. One worker anonymously said, “It is exhausting to have to constantly be coming out or feel as though I’m not being seen for who I truly am.”
Another said, “When same-sex marriage was legalized, no one in my office celebrated. I felt isolated.”
Over all, Andrasik said, people reported that their experiences and ideas had at some point been laughed at, ignored, or otherwise not taken seriously at the workplace. Other studies, like one from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said one LGBTQ worker in five has been told directly or indirectly to “dress in more of a feminine or masculine manner.” Fifty-three percent in that study said they have heard jokes from coworkers about lesbian or gay people once in a while.
No federal laws explicitly protect LGBTQ people from being unfairly fired, not hired, or discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Forty-eight percent of LGBTQ adults live in areas without state workplace protections, the Funders for LGBTQ Issues report said.
Kan created a set of recommendations for foundations to follow to improve workplace inclusivity:
- Make sure your institution’s nondiscrimination policies explicitly include protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
- Conduct targeted outreach to LGBTQ communities in your recruitment for staff roles, board positions, and committee opportunities.
- Make sure your human-resource policies are LGBTQ-friendly, such as seeing that your health-insurance policy provides benefits for LGBTQ families and covers transition-related health-care costs for transgender employees.
- Treat LGBTQ discrimination the same way you would treat racial or gender discrimination.
- Provide training on LGBTQ issues and create a culture in which ongoing learning about cultural sensitivity is not only encouraged but expected.