Baluyot, Isabella Ms. Brakel English 1-2 Accelerated 12 October 2021 Opportunities for LGBTQ+ v. Traditional-Gendered People The LGBTQ+ community is still not receiving justice. While individuals who identify within the LGBTQ+ spectrum are being accepted for who they are more in America today than in the past, they still are faced with discrimination in career opportunities. Individuals who are openly transgender, homosexual, or queer are commonly faced with discrimination socially, but it’s not often discussed how they are discriminated against with opportunities relating to education and employment. People who are cis-gendered and heterosexual may have the same opportunity as those who are LGBTQ+ in situations with non/biased employers, but people who are LGBTQ+ will have a more difficult time receiving opportunities solely for expressing their identity publicly. What Catholic-owned brand would want a transgender woman working its front desk? When a religious customer comes into the business and sees something they know as something against God, they will no longer want to support that business for supporting something they don’t themselves. Many LGBTQ+ people have pride in representing the journey they overcame to become who they are today. If it is not easy enough being able to decipher a transgender woman from a cisgender woman, many times the woman will display an object with the colors of the very recognizable transgender flag. The business now loses customers for hiring someone from the LGBTQ+ community and will stop in fear of losing more future customers. The employee now has to find a new job. Nobody should ever have to find a new job because their identity isn't supported by their boss, but there are easy loopholes that still make it legal today. A case very similar to this hypothetical happened only one year ago. The Guardian, a popular news outlet, covered the case when a transgender woman was fired from her job after coming out. The woman, Aimee, stated she “no longer to represent himself as a man” and how she wanted to dress femininely, but still appropriately . Thomas Rost, her Christian boss, stated that he fired Aimee because she was violating the dress code by asking to dress in the uniform for women. Firing Aimee Stephens was beyond her not following a dress code. Aimee Stephens was fired for expressing her true identity that Rost did not agree with. The only likelihood LGBTQ+ individuals have a fair chance of opportunity is when companies employ using blind hiring. Blind hiring is when an employer looks at all of the applicants’ qualifications without seeing their unnecessary personal information. Blind hiring comes down to a person’s skill and smarts overall. Companies such as HSBC, Deloitte, BBC, and Google are some familiar companies that practice blind hiring. Google is known for its diversity when it comes to race and gender. Google always employs a diverse group of people including those who are LGBTQ+. Google is a proud sponsor of STEM which is a very prestigious field to work in. Traditional-gendered people and LGBTQ+ people receive the same opportunity in this situation, so one can’t say that LGBTQ+ people are discriminated against all the time. Most of the time, discrimination doesn’t occur when a queer individual is applying for a job or education, but happens after they achieved that. There are plenty of statistics stating how men differ from men, how people of color differ from white people, but the studies of LGBTQ+ people and how they differ from Non-LGBTQ+ people are also very important. The news outlet Nature News surveyed 25,324 STEM professionals, half LGBTQ+ and half cis-gendered and heterosexual. By far, LGBTQ+ people were reported to have: more stress from work, minor health problems, depressive symptoms, and insomnia. This is not a coincidence. Career opportunities go beyond receiving the job you applied for and rightfully getting it. It’s not often taken into how people are treated within the workplace is just as important. It was only one year ago today when the Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ+ individuals as well. Despite this, the LGBTQ+ population are experiencing discrimination and it’s not progressing fast enough for all LGBTQ+ people to feel safe in a workplace. Alongside harassment and danger in a workplace, which happens more often than not to LGBTQ+ people, some won’t experience the same opportunity as traditionally gendered people because of opinions people have about their identity. Not only are there biased people, but some states are much less accepting than others regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Some LGBTQ+ people go their whole lives with the mindset that since they are LGBTQ+, they won’t have the same opportunities as traditionally gendered folk.
