According to a recent survey, 82% of transgender workers said they had at some time in their lives encountered harassment or discrimination at work due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The LGBTQ research think tank, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, conducted the study. It characterized harassment and discrimination as being verbally, sexually, or physically harassed, being fired, not hired, or not promoted. Compared to cisgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer employees (45%) and nonbinary employees (59%), trans employees were more likely to report such experiences.
Brad Sears, the report’s principal author and founding executive director of the Williams Institute, said in a statement that transgender persons are a particularly marginalized and vulnerable population in the workplace. Due to unsupportive work settings and the fact that many people do not bring their whole self to work, they are less likely to fully invest in their current company and job.
According to earlier Williams Institute study, there are roughly 1.3 million trans adults in the United States. The new analysis compared the experiences of trans adults to those of their cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer friends by surveying 1,902 LGBTQ adults in the workforce, including 86 trans adults, during the summer of 2023.
Six out of ten trans individuals polled made less than $50,000 annually, and half of them were people of color. Of the trans respondents who said they had encountered harassment or discrimination at work at some time in their careers, 42% reported sexual harassment, 34% reported physical harassment, and 65% reported verbal harassment.
Numerous trans respondents gave instances of being repeatedly misgendered or deadnamed, which refers to someone purposefully using the wrong pronouns or their former name. They also mentioned that, among other forms of verbal harassment, coworkers asked intrusive questions about their body or transition.
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Respondents’ remarks that detailed some of their experiences are included in the report. One trans employee from Massachusetts, for instance, claimed that their boss, supervisor, and coworkers asked them too many personal questions about how they dress, how they wear a binder to flatten their chest, and how their sexuality changed at the time of their transition.
The likelihood of being fired (12% vs. 5%), not hired (20% vs. 5%), or not offered career advancement opportunities (15% vs. 5%) due to their gender identity or sexual orientation was two to four times higher for trans employees who reported experiencing discrimination than for cisgender LGBQ employees.
According to the survey, transgender people tried to lessen workplace harassment and discrimination by hiding their gender identification at work or by seeking employment elsewhere. 71% of trans respondents reported engaging in behaviors to conceal their gender identity, such as altering their voice or mannerisms while at work, and 67% reported quitting a job due to treatment based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. Additionally, 36% of trans respondents stated they are not out as trans to their current supervisor, 13% to any of their coworkers, and 71% to their current supervisor.
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