Workplace Experiences of Black LGBTQ Employees

Executive Summary

This report examines experiences of employment discrimination and harassment against Black LGBTQ adults using a survey of 1,902 LGBTQ adults in the workforce, including 218 Black LGBTQ adults, conducted in the summer of 2023. We compare the experiences of Black LGBTQ employees with those of White, Latinx, and Asian LGBTQ employees.

Almost 60% of Black LGBTQ adults in the workforce were under age 35 (59%), 60% identified as bisexual, and 9% were transgender or nonbinary. Almost seven in ten (69%) do not have a Bachelor’s degree, and six in ten (59%) were making less than $50,000 a year. Like the general population of Black adults in the U.S., Black LGBTQ adults were more likely to live in the Southeast (44%), a region with some of the least protective laws and levels of social support for LGBTQ people.

Our analysis indicates that employment discrimination against Black LGBTQ employees is persistent and widespread. About half of Black LGBTQ employees (51%) reported experiencing discrimination or harassment at work (including being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, physically, or sexually harassed) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity during their lifetime.

Many Black LGBTQ employees reported recent experiences of discrimination and harassment. Within the past year, 15% of Black LGBTQ employees reported that they had been fired, not hired, or not promoted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 14% reported they experienced at least one form of harassment at work. More than one in four Black LGBTQ employees (27%) reported some type of adverse workplace experience related to their sexual orientation or gender identity at their current job.

Black LGBTQ employees also reported engaging in actions to avoid discrimination and harassment, including hiding their LGBTQ identity and changing their appearance or behaviors. Over one-third (38%) of Black LGBTQ employees were not out to their current supervisors, and 19% were not out to any of their coworkers. Over half (58%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported engaging in some form of covering behavior, including changing their speech, mannerisms, appearance, or how they dress at work; avoiding work social events; or not talking about their outside activities at work.

Over a third of Black LGBTQ employees reported looking for another job because of how they were treated based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at work (36%) or leaving a job because of such treatment (35%). Due to the workplace environment for LGBTQ people in general, almost one in five Black LGBTQ employees (18%) reported they considered leaving their current job, with two-thirds (67%) of these employees taking steps towards finding another job.

Along most measures, Black LGBTQ employees reported higher rates of adverse workplace experiences compared to White LGBTQ employees. In general, they reported similar levels of adverse workplace experiences as LGBTQ Latinx and Asian employees, with a few differences noted below. While the key findings of the report are summarized below, the full report includes quotes from Black LGBTQ respondents to provide more detail about their experiences of discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

Key Findings

Demographics

• Approximately 59% of Black LGBTQ adults in the workforce are under the age of 35, and 81% are under the age of 45.
• Nine percent of Black LGBTQ adults identified as transgender (3%) or nonbinary (5%).1
• Sixty percent of Black LGBTQ adults identified as bisexual, and 38% identified as lesbian or gay.
• Almost half of Black LGBTQ adults reported living with a partner (45%).
• Almost seven in 10 Black LGBTQ adults in the workforce did not have a Bachelor’s degree (69%), and six in 10 (59%) were making less than $50,000 a year, with one in four (25%) making less than $25,000 a year. Black LGBTQ adults were less likely to have a Bachelor’s or post- Bachelor’s education than White and Asian LGBTQ adults and more likely to make under $25,000 than those who were White, Latinx, and Asian.
• Black LGBTQ adults are more likely to live in the Southeast (44%) than LGBTQ adults of other races and ethnicities (8% to 26%) and less likely to live in the Pacific region (7% vs. 14%-38%).

Lifetime Experiences of Discrimination and Harassment

• More than half (51%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing some form of discrimination or harassment, including being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, physically, or sexually harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • Discrimination: Forty-one percent of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing at least one form of employment discrimination (including being fired, not hired, not promoted, or denied other opportunities in the workplace) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
    • Black LGBTQ employees were more likely to experience discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives compared to White LGBTQ employees (41% v. 27%).
    • Over one in four Black LGBTQ employees reported being fired (29%), not hired (29%), and/or not promoted (25%) because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. By comparison, among White LGBTQ employees, 15% had been fired, 17% had not been hired, and 18% had not been promoted because of their LGBTQ status at some point in their lives.
    • Thirty-eight percent of Black LGBTQ employees reported that they had been treated unfairly at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives. Some of these experiences included having their hours reduced, being given less work, having to work in worse conditions, and being ostracized by their coworkers.

• • Harassment: Forty percent of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing at least one form of harassment (verbal, physical, or sexual harassment) at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives.
    • Black LGBTQ employees were more likely to report experiencing harassment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity at some point in their lives than White LGBTQ employees (40% v. 33%)
    • Over one-third (35%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing verbal harassment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, citing examples of name-calling, being misgendered, or being harassed for not conforming to traditional binary gender or gender stereotypes.
    • One in five (20%) Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing physical harassment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
    • About one-quarter (24%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing sexual harassment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

• Beyond how they have been personally treated, two-thirds of Black LGBTQ employees (66%) had heard negative comments about LGBTQ people in the workplace.

Intersectional Discrimination and Harassment

• When asked to describe their worst experiences of discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, many Black LGBTQ employees described intersectional discrimination based on their multiple marginalized identities. In addition to discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and their race/ethnicity, they described experiences of discrimination related to or based on their gender, gender expression, and religion.

Recent Experiences of Discrimination and Harassment

• Almost one in four (23%) Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing some form of discrimination or harassment in the past year.
  • Discrimination: One in seven (15%) Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing employment discrimination (including being fired, not hired, or being denied a promotion or other workplace opportunities) based on their sexual orientation or their gender identity in the past year and almost one-third (31%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing discrimination in the past five years.
    • Black LGBTQ employees were twice as likely as White LGBTQ employees to report experiencing employment discrimination in the past year (15% vs. 7%) and the past five years (31% vs. 15%).
    • More specifically, in the past year, 7% of Black LGBTQ employees reported being fired, 8% reported not being hired, and 7% reported not being promoted or being denied other workplace opportunities. In the past five years, 21% reported being fired, 22% reported not being hired, and 19% reported not being promoted.
  • Harassment: One in seven (14%) Black LGBTQ employees reported experiencing some form of harassment (including verbal, physical, or sexual harassment) in the workplace based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in the past year, and over one-fourth (28%) reported these experiences in the past five years.
    • Black LGBTQ employees were more likely to experience harassment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity than White LGBTQ employees in the past year (14% v. 9%) and in the past five years (28% v. 19%).
    • More specifically, in the past year, 8% of Black LGBTQ employees reported verbal harassment, 6% reported physical harassment, and 7% reported sexual harassment. In the past five years, 24% reported verbal harassment, 13% reported physical harassment, and 16% reported sexual harassment.
  • Negative comments: Thirty percent of Black LGBTQ employees reported hearing negative comments in the workplace in the past year.

Experiences at Current Job

• Respondents were asked specifically about their experiences at their current job. Over two-thirds of Black LGBTQ employees (69%) felt that their current workplace environments were somewhat or very supportive of LGBTQ employees, while 12% felt the environment was somewhat or very unsupportive. These percentages mirrored those who expressed job satisfaction (71%) and dissatisfaction (14%) with their current jobs.
• Over one-fourth of Black LGBTQ employees (27%) reported some type of adverse workplace experience related to their sexual orientation or gender identity at their current job.
  • Black LGBTQ employees were more likely to report adverse workplace experiences at their current job than White LGBTQ employees (27% v. 20%).
  • More specifically, 19% of Black LGBTQ employees reported being treated unfairly, 10% reported being verbally harassed, 9% reported not being promoted or being denied other opportunities, 8% reported being sexually harassed, and 3% reported being physically harassed or assaulted in the workplace.

Out at Work

• Over one-third (38%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported that they are not open about being LGBTQ to their current supervisor, and 19% reported that they are not out to any of their coworkers.
• One-third (36%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported being out to all their coworkers.

Covering

• Nearly six in 10 Black LGBTQ employees (58%) reported engaging in covering behaviors at their current job in order to avoid discrimination or harassment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • More specifically, Black LGBTQ employees took steps to change how they presented themselves at work, including changing their voice or mannerisms (23%); changing how they dressed (17%) or their physical appearance (16%); and changing where, when, or how frequently they used the bathroom (9%).
  • Additionally, 23% of Black LGBTQ employees reported avoiding work events and travel, and 32% reported avoiding work-related social events in order to avoid discrimination or harassment. Thirty-two percent reported avoiding sharing their activities outside of work and talking about their family at work. Twenty-two percent of Black LGBTQ employees reported not displaying photos of their partner or family at work, and 26% of Black LGBTQ employees reported not bringing family to work events in order to avoid discrimination or harassment.

Retention

• Thirty-five percent (35%) of Black LGBTQ employees reported that they left a job at some point in their lives because of how their employer treated them based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. A similar percentage (36%) reported looking for other jobs due to how they were personally treated at their workplace or because the general workplace environment was not supportive of LGBTQ people.
• Black LGBTQ employees are more likely to have left a job (35% vs. 30%) or looked for a job (36% vs. 32%) because of how their employer treated them than White LGBTQ employees.
• Due to the workplace environment for LGBTQ people at their current job, almost one in five Black LGBTQ employees (18%) reported they considered leaving. Of those, two-thirds (67%) reported taking steps toward finding another job. By comparison, only one in 10 (11%) White LGBTQ employees said they considered leaving their current job.

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