Homophobia in Sport and Organization

...

Communication is one the factors which can be considered to help a member of the LGBT community. Organizations depend on communication daily to maintain a high level of efficiency and to be successful. Although communication has a very important role formally within a company there are many informal forms of communication employees engage in every day. Communication between employees can build a level of safety and togetherness within the company which allows each employee to possibly grow as an individual. Collins agrees with this, “Organizations that communicate effectively may be more likely to encourage safe climates, and safer climates are generally better for employee health and wellness” (2013, p. 250). Increased communication can allow for coworkers to understand where each other are coming from and what they are comfortable with. An environment with more communication can lead to a member of the LGBT community feeling safer about coming out and continuing to work at the organization. However like stated in the previous paragraph organizations can have rules and regulations particularly on how employees should interact. “However, high-risk

industries are not necessarily conducive to “[encouraging] and [rewarding] individuals and teams for sharing safety-related information if sharing speaks out against or runs in contradiction to tradition” (Collins, p. 250). Some organizations have been built on consistent rules which have produced a high level of success for the company but on an employee level develop a level of restriction and freedom. These typical environments make it difficult for not only a member of the LGBT community to come out but for anyone in the company to share something personal. Employees need to feel safe in communicating with their work peers or they will become a shell of themselves and their work production could overall suffer. Organizations need to consider the level of informal communication that occurs within their work setting and build an open environment for the employees to communicate safely.

Organizations have discriminated against same sex employees for many years in the workplace including their wages. This is not only contained in the United States, it is happening in Europe as well. For example a study did by Thierry Laurent & Ferhat Mihoubi shows unfortunate information on how the LGBT community is discriminated against in France. “The results obtained show the existence of a wage penalty for homosexual male workers, as compared with their heterosexual counterparts, in both the private and public sectors; the magnitude of this discrimination varies from about −6.5 % in the private sector, to −5.5 % in the public sector” (p. 487). In terms of their study they did not find any discrepancies in the wages of lesbian workers. If this disturbing evidence is proof of how organizations discriminate against homosexual individuals then imagine the increased stress this puts on those individuals looking for a job or currently working. In these cases organizations are literally taking money away from gays and lesbians. What becomes more alarming is France has laws against wage discrimination on gays and lesbians. These organizations have created a norm where they will pay less for a member of the LGBT community than a heterosexual employee. However there is no data in Laurent’s and Mihoubi’s research of how these wage decreases compare to women or minorities but it be would another aspect to look at how those wages differ. Another factor in this study which is mentioned is how many of gay or lesbian workers are currently employed where there employer does not know. “First, as some homosexual employees are not identified as such by their employers, wage discrimination measured in a sample of all homosexual employees, represents an underestimate of the actual discrimination experienced by workers whose sexual orientation is known to the employer” (Laurent & Mihoubi, 2012 p. 490). Since some homosexual employers work unknown the actual known level of wage discrimination is hard to determine. If those workers were to come out they could see a decrease in pay or could be slowed down on their pay scales in the future. The organizations create the environment where wage discrimination is allowed and this type of management needs to cease.

Employees with a heterosexual status are sometimes worried about their own jobs in terms of homophobic actions they see. If an organization has created an environment where homophobia is prevalent then people outside of the LGBT community may feel pressured to partake in those actions towards their homosexual coworkers. In Paul Willis’ article Witnesses on the periphery: Young lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer employees witnessing homophobic exchanges in Australian workplaces he analyzes the interactions at Australian workplaces and how the witnesses are affected. “However, discrimination may not always be experienced by employees as targets or victims − it may also be experienced through witnessing the negative treatment of others or listening to oppressive remarks that resonate with elements of the individual’s personal and social identity” (Willis, p. 1590). For example joking is one of the key elements of continued homophobia in the workplace. Willis mentions this, “Within male-dominated work cultures, have discussed how homosexual-oriented jokes can reinforce power inequalities and positions of male solidarity through the representation of lesbians and gay men as the Sexual Other” (p. 1592). In the work place people, in this case men joke about the sexual identity of homosexuals and without knowing are discriminating against them. In some cases a bystander either a LGBT individual or not may hear the conversation but do not stop them or mention it to a superior. The power heterosexual individuals hold within the workplace can cause unfortunate circumstances. “argue that power, like sexuality, is not an individual possession brought into the workplace from the outside world. Alternatively, power relations are constructed and negotiated within work contexts” (Willis, p. 1593). Willis is describing how the organization, not the outside world creates the environment where the employers are working. The workers may bring in outside ideas but the organization has a hold on what they discuss. Heteronormativity drives the way heterosexual people interact at work. Willis defines this as, “ubiquitous body of knowledge in Western worlds that reinforces the privileged status of heterosexuality through unspoken assumptions about heterosexual relations as ‘natural’ and ‘normal’” (p. 1593). With the social norms surrounding the dominant heterosexual world it becomes hard for a heterosexual individual to support a homosexual coworker in the work environment without being perceived