China's gays, bisexuals face workplace discrimination
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E-mail Xinhua, May 17, 2013
Zhao Xin, a gay man in east China's Jiangxi Province, knows that if he stays at any company for long, his co-workers are sure to ask about his girlfriend.
"It has driven me crazy that my colleagues would be so fixated on questions like, 'Why you don't have a girlfriend?' I can't stop them, unless I admit I'm gay," said Zhao, who preferred that his real name not be used.
However, Zhao seems to prefer switching jobs than coming out to people at his company, which is based in the provincial capital Nanchang.
"I'll not ask for trouble. I don't want my peers to look at me in a different light, and all the pressure and stigmas of being gay," he said.
The man's concerns were reinforced by a report released Friday, the International Day Against Homophobia.
The report published by Aibai Culture and Education Center concludes that gays and bisexuals in China face widespread discrimination from their employers and peers, which discourages them from being open about their sexual orientation in the workplace.
The report shows that 47 percent of 2,161 respondents to a survey keep their sexual orientation a complete secret at the office, while just 6 percent are open about their orientation. The remainder said they have revealed their sexual orientation to some colleagues.
Established in 1999, Aibai is a Chinese non-profit organization dedicated to promoting equal rights for those in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.
Nearly half of the respondents said they are racking their brains for ways to avoid revealing their sexual orientation in the workplace, according to the report, which was based on a three-month survey of gays and bisexuals aged 16 and 59 from 17 provinces and municipalities.
It said that some of the key factors leading gay and bisexual employees to conceal their orientation are concerns about office gossip, as well as the potential impact that revealing their orientation could have on their relationships with their peers and their own career development.
The survey also found that 38 percent of respondents have been subjected to offensive language or teasing due to their sexual orientation, while 30 percent said they did not receive due respect at work. In addition, about 270 respondents said they believe that they have missed out on promotions due to their sexual orientation.
Some 20 percent of respondents have resigned or are considering resigning due to pressure and discrimination at work.
The report also revealed that gays and bisexuals in state-owned enterprises and government sectors are under more pressure than their counterparts in private local businesses and multinational companies.
"It's no good to be viewed as an oddball by government staff, who are among the most conservative Chinese people, especially my bosses many years my senior," said Zhu Jin, a civil servant in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Zhu also requested that a pseudonym be used.
PROTECTION NEEDED
Unlike Zhao and Zhu, "Xin Xin" chose to reveal his sexual orientation to his peers and boss.
"The old days when I had to pretend to be a strong straight guy were so depressing and miserable. Now, I feel relieved and happy about my life," said the fashion magazine staffer in Beijing.
His bold move, unsurprisingly, brought trouble. "One of my peers, a straight man, fled the restroom as soon as he saw me enter it," he said, adding that he never filed grievances with the company's management.
"They don't understand gays. Some even still see homosexuality as an illness," he said.
The predicaments of homosexuals and bisexuals are the result of employers' failures to establish measures to protect LGBT staff and their lack of awareness about building a diverse work environment, according to the Aibai report.
"Currently, Chinese companies are almost unaware of the existence of sexual minority employees, let alone know about protection and equal rights for them," said Huang Yaohua, the program manager in charge of the survey.
The report calls on Chinese employers to enact policies to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, provide the partners of LGBT staff with the same benefits offered to their heterosexual peers and make workplaces more LGBT-friendly.
It quotes the results of a previous research that found that LGBT staff concealing their sexual orientation due to discrimination at the office could reduce a company's productivity by up to 30 percent.
Liu Xiaonan, an associate professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, called for legislation to protect LGBT rights in the workplace, which are neglected by the country's current labor law and employment promotion law.
Sexologist Zhang Beichuan believes the key to improving the conditions of LGBT staff lies in government efforts to promote knowledge and understanding of the community among the public, with a campaign preferably starting in schools.
Homosexuality was removed from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders in 2001, after the World Health Organization did the same on May 17, 1990.
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