Tuesday the 11th October is U.S National Coming Out Day, an annual civil awareness day to internationally recognise members of the LGBTQ+ community. Not only does the process of ‘coming out’ involve self-disclosure of one’s sexual orientation, it also applies to one’s gender identity.

Drawing Gay Flag

The question is: do trans employees still fear workplace transphobia and discrimination, if they come out to their colleagues or bosses?

Working with a number of key transgender influencers, totaljobs conducted a survey to gather as much information about the experiences of trans employees in the workplace. The survey found that:

• 53% have felt the need to hide their trans status from colleagues
• 36% have left a job because the workplace environment was unwelcoming
• 60% have experienced transphobic discrimination in the workplace

Although 29% trans employees never experienced discrimination in the workplace, discrimination that was experienced, was mostly found in the following areas:
• 38% – Colleagues
• 29% – Recruitment
• 25% – Management
• 14% – Promotion

When asked how their colleagues reacted to their transition there was some good news:
• 50% Reacted positively
• 40% Neutral (No reaction)
• 10% Negatively

All of these findings and more can be found in our in-depth report, along with quotes from trans employees here.

Photo By SatyrTN (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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