The Truth About
Coming Out at Work
IT’S NOT A SIMPLE AS YOU MAY THINK
When some people think about the process of com-ing
out they imagine the well-worn tropes of their
favourite movies and TV shows. The scene is clas-sic:
A person sits down with their parents, friends or
coworkers to disclose that they are bi, gay, trans or any other iden-tity
under the gender and sexual minority umbrella. It’s all very
dramatic and set to beautiful piano music.
The truth is that while disclosing one’s true gender identity or
sexual orientation for the first time can be a landmark moment,
the practice of coming out doesn’t stop after that one special con-versation.
Gender and sexual minorities come out in small ways
every day.
Coming out can be a lesbian woman sending back legal docu-ments
that say “and husband” for correction because she, in fact,
has a wife. Coming out for someone who is trans might be explain-ing
to a prospective employer that their degree and transcripts
show a different name than the one on their resume. Coming
out for someone who identifies as non-binary can be correcting
a person who addresses them as “he” by stating that they use the
pronoun “they.”
Whether by formal announcement, or in these small conversa-tional
ways, people should not have to worry about coming out at
work in Canada, but they do. Despite the fact that people work-ing
in Canada enjoy employment protections on the grounds of
gender expression, gender identity and sexual orientation at every
jurisdictional level, the global consulting firm Out Now found that
over half of people who identify as bi, gay or trans in Canada aren’t
out to everyone they work with. Some people don’t disclose their
identity because they worry about being stereotyped. Many peo-ple
stay in the closet to protect their physical safety while on the
job. Big or small, these fears don’t come out of nowhere. They are
developed over a lifetime of exposure to biphobic, homophobic
and transphobic behaviour and violence both inside the workplace
and in daily life.
The Canadian Mental Health Association has found that gay,
lesbian and bi people are at double the risk of post-traumatic stress
By Colin Druhan
hr practice
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HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ CONFERENCE ISSUE 2019 ❚ 25
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