Intersections at work

5 Diversity Council Australia (DCA) and Pride in Diversity joined forces on this project as our respective research on LGBTQ workplace inclusion had revealed that culturally diverse LGBTQ workers had unique workplace experiences that warranted investigation. When we looked at our respective research, we were struck by two distinct messages we heard from culturally diverse LGBTQ people about what being ‘out’ meant to them. On the one hand, DCA’s Out At Work 1 and Pride in Diversity’s Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) 2 2019 survey findings revealed little if any statistically significant differences between culturally diverse and non-culturally diverse LGBTQ workers in relation to their experiences of being out at work. (Though Pride in Diversity has since added new questions to its 2020 AWEI survey to provide deeper and richer insights in this area – so stay tuned for these results!) On the other hand, comments made by culturally diverse LGBTQ people in DCA and PID’s open-ended survey questions and in focus groups, revealed that their cultural background had a distinct effect on their experiences of being out at work and workplace inclusion – in a way that wasn’t reflected in our survey findings. This sentiment is reflected in the below quote provided by a culturally diverse LGBTIQ+ worker who participated in DCA’s Out at Work survey. “it’s not necessarily work that stops me from being out but my own background/culture.” We then turned to the existing literature to see if this could shed some further light. We found little academic research that looked specifically at the experiences of LGBTQ culturally diverse people at work (see Appendix A). The dominant voice captured in this literature appeared to be cisgendered white gay men. Issues around conflict, family and visibility for culturally diverse LGBT workers had been raised but not explored in an Australian workplace context (the exception being PID’s video library CALD conversations). 3. Our aspiration, therefore, was to address this gap in research by talking with culturally diverse LGBTQ Australian workers in order to better understand their experiences. 4. wHY tHis PRoJeCt? Being ‘out’ means DiFFeRent tHings to DiFFeRent PeoPLe . it’s important to note that when it comes to being “out at work”, people of diverse genders may have very different motivations to those of diverse sexualities. For example, someone with a trans history or experience does not need to be out to be personally authentic; affirming their gender was in fact their road to authenticity. Being out about their trans history or experience for some may be revisiting a time that may be difficult and should not be seen as a marker of inclusion.