Yes, Heather, There Still Is a Gay Glass Ceiling

Image: Strange De Jim. Castro Boys Slip Outside. How To Escape The Gay Glass Ceiling For a Few Wonderful Hours With Friends At A Community Event. Photo Taken during a 1970's era Castro Street Fair in San Francisco.

Source 365gay.com/Logo (click header for story).

" Heather (she wishes to be identified by first name only) and her partner have seen what happens to people who come out at their workplace. About eight years ago, she says, a co-worker came out, and her supervisor “went ballistic, he was so mad,” Heather said. A month later, the co-worker left the company. Things are better now, Heather said, but still are not great. Gay employees write anonymous letters to the Diversity Committee instead of volunteering to help or come to meetings. There is a rumor that there is a gay vice president of the company somewhere in Europe – but otherwise, there are no out gay executives. And she herself hasn’t been promoted since she started coming out. Heather has hit the gay glass ceiling. When it comes to the workplace, gay and lesbian activists have focused mainly on ending overt and obvious harassment and discriminatory hiring, firing, and promotion practices. Over the past few weeks, a raw debate over including transgenders in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has rocketed GLBT workers into the headlines. The inclusive bill would protect workers from being discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but it seems unlikely to be passed. Despite the absence of a federal law, however, gays and lesbians (and sometimes transgenders) are slowly being protected city by city, state by state, and company by company. Twenty states protect gay and lesbian workers from discrimination, as do 140 municipalities and counties, 470 companies in the Fortune 500, and hundreds of other companies and non-profits. These policies are fairly well supported by the electorate; in a September poll, more than one half of the respondents supported equal rights in the workplace for gays and lesbians. Most people see discrimination in hiring and firing as obviously wrong, and legislators, activists, and companies are working hard to end it, with popular support. Overt discrimination is not so much a glass ceiling as a thick cement slab. You can’t cut through it without the help of a legal sledgehammer. Legislation is necessary. But antidiscrimination policies, though a necessary first step, are not enough. Cultural gay glass ceilings can’t be legislated away. In such a workplace, no one is calling gays names or firing people who come out. Instead, there is a wage gap, or gay people or denied plum assignments or don't get promoted - or coworkers are just not friendly. Gays and lesbians in unsupportive (or openly hostile) workplaces are more likely to find themselves shut off from mentorship opportunities, are less likely to be promoted, and tend to have lower incomes than their straight counterparts. It is unhappiness through a thousand paper cuts.