“If one day, we can reduce the daily tension brought by others to us without having to use funny or amusing things, then it will be a friendlier world” — a Chinese LGBTQ employee activist.
The quote reflects that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) employees encounter discrimination and use different tactics to cope with it on a daily basis. Reducing such discrimination often requires individuals to have courage to challenge the status quo, even if such challenge leads only to “small wins”. While we have heard many stories how LGBTQ employees fight for equal treatment in the press, there has been limited systematic research on this important topic. In fact, Canadian Union of Public Employees on May 17, 2021 called for research to find effective ways to reduce homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia in the workplace.
In this project, we aim to understand how we can achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace specific to sexual minorities. We partner with community organizations both in Canada and China to (1) understand how LGBTQ employees cope with workplace discrimination; (2) identify the mechanisms that lead to LGBTQ employees to stand up against workplace discrimination; and (3) explore how institutional contexts influence the forms of discrimination and actions taken to reduce discrimination.
There are three stages of the project. In the first stage, we will conduct a study using the experience sampling methodology to explore the conditions under which LGBTQ employees cope with and stand up against workplace discrimination. In the second stage, we will conduct a survey study to examine how emotion regulation strategies used by LGBTQ employees help to cope with and stand up against workplace discrimination. In the third stage, we will conduct a series of knowledge mobilization activities to share our findings with academics and communities.
