Lesbian & Bisexual Women: In Their Words

In honor of Lesbian Visibility Week, we recently hosted a panel with lesbian and bisexual women and non-binary people to celebrate the achievements of this community, whilst also reflecting upon the barriers they still face. Speakers from various organizations joined to offer their perspectives of identifying as LGBTQ+ in the workplace, discussing the value of authentic allyship and relaying their unique experiences.

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Host Michi Raymond, Business Development Director at myGwork, opened the panel with direct statistics from myGwork’s recent Lesbian Visibility survey. The report indicated that three quarters of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people are not completely out due to fears of discrimination. Seven out of ten women and non-binary people face discrimination at work, with the figure increasing for people of color and those from more marginalized communities. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ women and non-binary professionals believe that their sexual orientation and/or gender identity hinders their career progression and influences whether they are offered training and development opportunities to get ahead.

“I bring up these points because even though we’ve made some really great advancements in the LGBTQ+ community for women in business, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Michi.

myGwork also offered a chance to win a £100 Amazon voucher to those who entered the survey. The lucky winner of the prize draw was announced in the panel by Michi, and can now be revealed. The winner is... Sammy J! Congratulations to Sammy, we will be in contact soon so you can claim your prize. Thank you to all who took part in this important study!

Trudy Murray, Product Manager at Pearson, agreed with the sentiment that there is still room for progress to be made for LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people. She particularly focuses on identifying as proudly bisexual in the workplace – an often-overlooked struggle for many in the community.

“As a bisexual person, it’s so important for people who identify as bisexual to be able to be visible in the workplace,” said Trudy. “We know from data that’s published by other organizations that when you identify as a bisexual person, you are even less likely to be out in the workplace than if you identified as a lesbian or as a gay man, for example. By being able to be out and be loud and proud about it, it paves the way for others who are going to arrive after, but also maybe for those who are in the organization now and feel a little bit unsure about being out in the workplace.”

Also reflecting on coming out in the workplace was Debbie Woods, Medical Director for Sanofi. Debbie described a common experience for many LGBTQ+ people in the workplace, who feel they have to come out all over again with every new interaction due to heteronormative assumptions.

“One of the challenges I have is that every time a new coworker starts, you come out again,” said Debbie. “People always ask, ‘when did you come out?’, and the answer is, I come out nearly every day. The first thing people ask me is what my husband does, and it’s just an assumption. So, I will say “my wife is a police officer”, and then there’s always that pause. It happens a lot.”

Marie-Helene Tyack, Global Diversity and Inclusion Business Partner at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, opened up about a negative experience at a previous company. Despite the discomfort with how she was treated, Marie-Helene revealed how the incident inspired her to live every day with authenticity and pride in her identity.

“In my previous company, I decided that I was going to pretend to be somebody that I wasn’t because I didn’t feel comfortable being out,” she explained. “This was in France, so I was constantly juggling with pronouns and inventing weekend activities with someone of another gender. This went on for a few months, and then I came out to somebody who told me that I’d already been outed when I joined the company. It was just absolutely humiliating, so I decided there and then that I was going to take the power back, and that I’m going to be as loud and proud and obnoxious as I can because I’m not going to be made to feel like that ever again.”

Also sharing stories of feeling limitations of freedom in the workplace was Meg Kimber, Customer Service Co-Ordinator at Marsh McLennan. She described the impact of hiding your identity at the workplace, and how it can unfairly put into question a person’s legitimacy.

 “For many, many years I was identifying as bisexual, and it was only in the last year or so that I started identifying as queer because it felt more comfortable,” they said. “But in the workplace, I didn’t feel comfortable to turn around and say that, especially when you’re in a straight-presenting relationship. So, then it starts to leach into other areas of discrediting the work you’re doing, because if you can’t be honest about your sexuality then how can you be honest about the things you’re doing at work? It impacts every other thing that you do.”

Zion Sage, Change Management Business Partner at Travelport, revealed the interesting change in dynamic that occurs at the workplace depending on whether she presents as masculine or feminine. She found that by presenting herself as masculine, people naturally assume she is more capable in her role, indicating there is still a long way to go in changing attitudes towards gender in the workplace.

“Navigating most of my life when I’m masculine-presenting, people assume that I can take the lead and assume that I’m qualified and capable,” revealed Zion. “I love balancing that out and playing devil’s advocate by showing up when I’m feminine and challenging those thoughts. To see if they see me as equally capable and confident in leading.”

Reflecting on the value of allyship was Juanita Gomez, Associate Director at Organon. She put a spotlight on how the LGBTQ+ community treats each other, discussing how it is more important than ever that the community stands together rather than driving each other away.

“We’re asking people to accept us for who we are, but sometimes it’s our own community that’s the toughest on us,” said Juanita. “What we need is for our own community to understand that together we stand, separated we fall. Our differences are what make us unique.”

You can connect with all of the participants from the Lesbian & Bisexual Women: In Their Words panel via their myGwork page. Watch the full panel discussion below, or by clicking here.