Bullied Back in the Closet

Abstract

F ull-time employed adults spend nearly 25% of their time working for their employers every year. For the estimated 8.8 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered (LGBT) adults living in the United States (Ramos, Badgett, & Sears, 2008), the concept of spending 25% of a year at work believing they lack the safety to self-identify as LGBT because of a fear of losing employment can cause psychological stress, diminished physical health, and reduced work performance (Chun, 2011). The LGBT equal rights movement works so that fairness and ethical treatment of LGBT individuals continue; one area of continued attention is the existing and persistent social strain for LGBT individuals within workplace environments in which they often experience exclusion and bias (Field, 2009; Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD] et al., 2011; Human Rights Campaign, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c). Researchers largely have focused on the bullying epidemic at schools, including primary, secondary, and collegiate levels (GLAAD et al., 2011); however, bullying is also pervasive and epidemic in adult workplace settings (Field, 2009; Namie, 2011; Salin, 2008). LGBT individuals encounter workplace bias, discrimination, and bullying; the negative treatment may occur at each level within organizations (Elmslie & Tebaldi, 2007). Such bullying treatment, which is rooted in organizational culture and power, occurs disproportionately for the LGBT community. Although school bullying in the K–12 sector is illegal in 46 states (and disproportionately affects children associated with an alternative lifestyle; Stuart-Cassel, Bell, & Springer, 2011), workplace bullying is still legal in all 50 states. Ferfolja (2007) suggested bullying of LGBT individuals is disproportionate in Western societies because heterosexuality is considered natural (an antecedent to heterosexism and homophobia), and many consider homosexuality immoral, deviant, and contradictory to biological determinism of what is normal.