It’s now officially been one year since the Supreme Court ruled that businesses couldn’t fire an individual due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. This monumental ruling was a reinterpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and echoes the global progress the LGBTQ+ community has had. Three years before the United States had this breakthrough, Canada amended their Human Rights Act and Penal Code to protect transgender individuals against discrimination. While June is the month of celebrating for these huge accomplishments, there are still gaps in the current protections that need further consideration. AP News has mentioned various topics that weren’t included in the new ruling, like how businesses with fewer than 15 employees are exempted from the new law. The nation’s highest court also didn’t fully address the ongoing debate behind religious exemptions and restrooms for transgender people. This presents a concerning dilemma, where over 20% of LGBTQ+ individuals feel like they must hide that part of their lives to avoid career setbacks. This can range from lying about weekend plans to hiding social media posts that include a significant other. What are the pressing concerns for those groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and how can hostile work environments be addressed? I reached out to Grant Allen Gilbreath, an Educator in Upstate New York. Previously, they taught English Education in Texas and in educational programs such as Upward Bound and Student Support Services. Currently, they are focusing on culturally responsive teaching, queer education, and the impact of equity in the classroom. In the near future, they would like to be a prospective student in Educational Policy and Leadership.
A YouGov survey interviewed over 2000 LBGTQ+ professionals around early May, reporting that 47% of respondents believed being out would hurt their job application. Have you ever noticed any red flags in an interview process and how far do you think corporate environments have come in overall inclusion?
I didn’t necessarily see any red flags within an interview, but I was told to not apply for a certain position. Position was in the first district that I student taught at, where I considering to applying for the position. I was already kind of apprehensive about the particular district that I was in. I actually ended up student teaching at the school district that I went to. I understood the school culture and the climate and kind of the painted image towards people because I said I was already a student from that district to get some fun tags. For example, back in 2012, they promoted the traditional marriage of bands and would have different classes about things like Bible literature. I actually ended up having to teach that class as an elective which even after expressing that I was kind of a little uneasy towards teaching that subject just for personal reasons. They still insisted that I should try and teach Bible literature, which an interesting experience going into student teaching. I kind of already moved all on that and later within my student teaching program that year I kind of confided my concerns to a fellow teacher. She told me from a caring standpoint that the parents would have a hard time accepting, I would quit that role and that I should apply to another district. And it wasn’t like an intimidation type of way. It was more like a cautious warning, and so I applied to different districts of course. And not really any red flags but warnings that I kind of already knew going into student teaching there, but it worked out for the best. I think there have been a lot of corporate environments and it is coming a long way when it comes to inclusion. I also think it’s important for a company to be able to adequately address how they’re being inclusive. For example, if I think about this month in general, I have seen many companies adopt the pride flag colors. That’s great and some form of progress, but it also poses certain questions like is this a form of inclusivity as a performative or is it an actuality? Are the donations and finally going through the right organizations? How has the company towards people outside of the month of June?
Naji GEHCHAN, a Global Brand Development Leader at Lilly, has stated that inclusion starts at leadership with “leaders who not only believe in diversity but embrace it.” Is there any ways that companies can help LGBTQ+ employees secure leadership roles and do you personally like or prefer having a direct manager who identifies that way?
I think there’s several ways companies can help LGBTQ+ employees secure leadership roles. First and foremost, I think companies need to show action behind their policies. For example, when applying to most jobs, you’ll read something along the lines that states on-discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, et cetera but what action are being taught. How do you know your company will advocate for you? If you love things within that job, which demographics are being represented in leadership roles and which ones are not, and why is that the case? For example, while I was teaching in Texas, I personally became apprehensive about applying for leadership roles because with leadership of spotlight. Unfortunately, professionals sometimes must take that into consideration when they’re applying for leadership roles. So, from a teacher’s standpoint, the pressure isn’t usually about what the students are thinking, but typically how parents and faculty react when a career educator is put into leadership roles. So for example, Stacy Bailey and Mansfield ISD, she was penalized on administrative leave for showing a picture of her and her wife to our students and then they initially came from one of the student’s parents, and she was later compensated and request, and she requests into the district to conduct more professional development, providing LGBTQ plus education within the faculty, which has a huge, tremendous staff, especially and you know, in Texas and it’s kind of don’t have happen for the change to occur, and then another thing to simply, show visibility within your community. This could include professional development, creating safe spaces for faculty and presenting a clear mission statement for inclusivity and some action steps that are being put in place. So, employees do feel comfortable enough to work their way up and whatever profession they’re or bottom line is employees are not going to have the capacity nor drive to succeed. If they know there’s a chance, their company doesn’t have their best interest. So, knowing that from the start, I think that’s what companies should be doing or the employees.
Around June 2019, Lil Nas X came out publicly as gay and followed it with a tweet on the last day of Pride Month. This tweet stated “some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more.” Do you have any advice for individuals who might be in troublesome situations where coming out is less viable?
Definitely. So, when it comes to where you’re working, at the end of the day you definitely want to work somewhere where you are valued and that means a hundred percent value, not in pieces. They might enjoy the work that you’re doing, but, if something were to happen where you being a part of the LGBTQ plus community affects how you are at work, then that’s somewhere you don’t want to work. And as always like the troubling situation where even hidden places, where you’re not necessarily protected from that, you always have to kind of play it by ear, like kind of hear what other coworkers are saying. Where do you feel comfortable? Express that part of yourself, but there’s always that initial list that you’re always going to have from doing that. So that kind of goes back to the previous question of making sure although you’re interviewing for jobs then I guess the next thing is to know your rights and to listen to your intuition, if you feel like you’re in a situation that are troublesome then I would say to reach out to individuals and different organizations that can provide you the support and the legal support that you might need, because unfortunately, a lot of this has to do with policy as well. So, you definitely need to be able to reach out to different organizations that can provide you the legal support as well, if that needs to happen, that’s never happened to me, but I know in some cases that it has. and then I think the most important thing is to know that this situation here, and if you are in that situation is not your fault, especially if you’re young and fresh into the workforce, you might get that mentality that, no, this was my fault. I need to act a different way and that’s not your fault they’re seeing more prominently than ever the influence political leaders the law has when it comes to the future and work for it. We also have the large topics within Texas right now about critical race theory within schools and transgender rights and sports. So that also, I guess the last thing would be to also go out and vote. So all into that, I don’t want to get all into that, but I guess those are some different key points, like kind of bounced around a little bit but when it comes to like where your family and friends and you feel like it’s troublesome coming out or it’s less valuable, I would say too it’s a common thing within the queer community where we were we say we have our family, our birth family, and then our chosen family and, you know, our chosen family sometimes, unfortunately in the queer community, we have to go out there and seek a chosen family where we’re fully accepted which isn’t always the easiest thing to do. It’s easier to say that out loud, but there are definitely out there, you just have to be willing to look and you can definitely find that support. And there’s definitely a lot of different organizations it’s, especially I’m speaking in terms of Dallas area, there are a lot of different organizations that definitely help.
The Freedom for All Americans, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, mentioned that the new legislation is too basic and entry level. They’ve also written reports on the topics that aren’t mentioned in the Supreme Court case. What is the most pressing concern amongst the community that you believe will require government assistance?
I think for me, and I could be biased because I’m also a school teacher but I think the most pressing concern amongst the community involves protections for queer students and children. I think they are our next generation and they are kind of looking towards us for guidance and I’m speaking in terms of Texas and requiring government assistance. There’s still a huge issue when it comes to sex education that includes LGBTQ plus, education as well. LGBTQ plus even just starting from not having the right resources and sex education and also, there are certain protections or lack of protections actually for LGBTQ plus students and discrimination where teachers aren’t always allowed to address the discrimination that is happening upon the students, and I kind of touched base on this earlier, but we have transgendered students, who are being denied to play certain sports, well we still have a huge problem of conversion therapy and then we have 15,000 children or more and the foster care system where things that parents do not adopt, incident areas, or it is a lot further to do so and so all those kinds of viewpoints, I think the most pressing issue is really for the year.
Have you ever experienced any offensive statements that where the coworker didn’t know they were saying anything wrong?
When you say that I thought of my first-year teaching. There was another teacher and the teacher’s lounge, telling a story about some of the boys in her class. We all talk about it constantly and I was kind of just down the table listening. And also at the time, I wasn’t out to any of my coworkers. She started telling a story about these students always calling each other gay, but they’re the ones who keep touching each other. I won’t repeat what she stated completely but I kind of raised my eyebrows and kind of looked around. Everyone kept laughing along, which was super surprising to me. I understand that this other educator thinks a certain way about the students and is comfortable enough to know that they were in that way, and again this was my first-year teaching and I didn’t know how to address the situation. She was definitely a veteran teacher. She was well respected by everyone. And so, I was like, I am still a new 21-year-old teacher who, you know, I don’t know a whole lot, I’m trying to learn everything. I put pressure on myself to like, just not say anything. We’re now here, now that I teach in New York and it’s very straight. Like, that would be unheard of, you know, no one would even say anything like that, especially towards their students. So it is definitely interesting to see the difference between the two, but don’t get me wrong. New York also, there’s a lot of issues up here as well. When I come to, you know, that I’m not trying to put it on a pedestal.
