“I Am A Queer Woman, But My Own Acceptance Came At 50!”
Globally, India has emerged as one of the most rapidly developing economies. Indian companies are now competing in an interconnected world with the global companies increasingly tapping into the diverse workforce, including the LGBT community. There is a war for best talent across organisations. The companies who create an open, safe, inclusive and diverse space for employees will win.
Ask yourself, is your organisation diverse and inclusive?
Talking From A Personal Experience
Well, talking from a personal experience, just before the imposition of lockdown, I had a meeting in Mumbai. The boardroom comprised of “fifteen senior corporate men.” My presence was necessary as I was presenting a list of potential speakers as part of my business that I had founded. I also felt the need to share some options for Diversity & Inclusion speakers that included some speakers from the LGBT community. Much to my amazement, the head of this particular group, instantly turned around and said, we don’t need “such speakers” as we do not have this problem in our organisation”.
I could strongly sense the air of homophobia in that one statement, along with an assumption that in this company of 2500 employees, there would not be a single person from the LGBT community. It was equally shocking to know that the company was nowhere interested in ‘D&I’ initiatives, and felt they did not need to invest in a culture of diversity and inclusion.
Looking from a broader lens, in a report shared by Best Employees to Work in the USA, it is estimated that 4.5 per cent of the population in the United States (11million people) are identified as belonging to the LGBTQ community. With a large majority of this population (88%) in the workforce, more employees have pushed for LGBTQ-centric initiatives.
A recent Stonewall UK research indicates that more than third of LGBT staff (35%) have hidden that they are LGBT at work for fear of discrimination. The numbers will be much higher for India. In another survey conducted by Stonewall, says, ‘concealing sexual orientation at work reduces productivity by up to 30 per cent’. Now, imagine that!
I strongly believe that LGBT employees who work in organizations with employee networks, resource groups and/or mentoring programs are anywhere from 7% to 16% higher in their workplace experience scores. ‘Feeling safe to be out at work is critical to being able to build important workplace relationships’. Perhaps this could be reason enough that organizations should truly invest in making it inclusive and safe for all – isn’t this a basic human right?
Inclusivity Begins At Home, Community And Not At Workplaces
I am a queer woman. I came out queer to myself fully at the age of 50. Why? Because I was homophobic towards my own self, most of my life.
My own traditional upbringing in a Mangalorean household was full of prayers and into a belief that anything outside of the teachings of the church was sinful.
India is unique in that we all come from multicultural backgrounds, with varied religions and belief systems. Our families are often either unaware of the LGBT community or given the frame of references we have (our Bollywood cinema is an example of how the community is turned into a caricature), we often poke fun of anyone who is not heterosexual. We then take these unconscious biases to our workplaces. If our workplace has policies around such sensitisation, then we have at least some understanding and empathy, either by choice or because of the fear of the consequences we could face. However, at the end of it, it truly is all about an individual - how as an individual we accept, respect and value equity, diversity and inclusion.
In my younger days, there was no information about being ‘gay’, ‘queer’, ‘lesbian’. The only people who we knew from the community, were ‘hijras’, who were ridiculed, who you were told to stay away from. So, I grew up homophobic.
Later, when the word ‘gay’ did come up, it was always looked upon with disdain and those we found to be effeminate around us, in our school or at workplaces, were mocked.
To me, this is how life was. There was always this divide of ‘us’ and ‘them.’
Until, I realised, that the ‘them’ was ‘me’ as well.
I was in New Zealand those days when I was first dragged out of my closet, in a country where there are strict anti-discriminatory policies and laws in place to protect LGBT rights. Yet, I suffered passive, subtle homophobia. It was in the form of giving work directly to your teammates, in the form of not including you at social events, not promoting you, disparaging comments around you and by suddenly finding faults in everything that you did.
In India, it is even harder. As an entrepreneur, running my own business, I had the added pressure of ensuring I was ‘not out’ in the corporate world, should someone not give us business due to my sexual orientation, I was repeatedly told. I was not even out to my own colleagues at work, in case they demonstrated homophobia towards me. It wasn’t until my story came out in Humans of Bombay and Brut India, did my workmates get confirmation about my orientation and that too, it seemed to have caused more discomfort than expected and this was in 2020.
Our homes and our workplaces need to merge. In one. That is when acceptance will happen and inclusiveness will truly be celebrated.
Path Ahead
Going forward, workplaces also need to manage reputation and risk in a global environment, where employees who are not sensitised or trained on inclusiveness may end up causing severe embarrassment and damage to their corporate reputation, loss of customers and business.
Organisations in India have started to adopt best practices for diversity and inclusiveness in their organisations, recognising that a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace is directly linked to enhanced business performance. With the legalisation of section 377, there are more talented, skilled individuals slowly starting to come out at their workplaces.
The estimated cost of homophobia, as per the World Bank Group is USD 7.7 billion annually.
Now, how can we make our workplace more inclusive, well here is the checklist to ensure that:
