Shane Sturgiss remembers being told that he'd have to hide his sexuality in the workplace.
He had just come out of a heterosexual marriage and entered a same-sex relationship.
"I was already out; I was in a relationship. And I was actually told by my direct boss not to speak about my personal life, because homosexuality was not accepted within that organisation," Sturgiss tells ABC RN's This Working Life.
To be told that he couldn't be his true self at work was "quite disturbing", he says.
"I was young, and I was like, okay, sure if that's the rules, that's the rules. You know, I don't want to be a rule breaker. But I didn't last there very long, because it wasn't a good fit for me."
Sturgiss is now the CEO of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, which was established in 2019 to encourage safe and inclusive spaces for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQIA+ and Sistergirl and Brotherboy community.
"It's about education, it's about self-determination. It's about empowering our communities, making them feel safe, making them feel comfortable," Sturgiss, a Gundungurra man from New South Wales, says.
Still work to do
Despite the efforts of advocacy groups like BlaQ and those working with other communities, there's been a reported drop in the number of LGBTQIA+ people who are out at work since the COVID pandemic started in 2020.
According to the 2022 Australian Workplace Equality Index Employee Survey, only 59 per cent of people are out at work in Australia.
That's down from 67 per cent pre-COVID, says Jennifer Westacott, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia and co-patron of Pride in Diversity, the employer support program for LGBTI workplace inclusion.
She attributes the drop to the shift in many workplaces to online environments, where coming out can be harder.
"[It] tells you that the virtual environment was very challenging for people, as you would expect it to be, because you need a level of trust," Westacott says.
"The question then becomes, what's the training? What's the policy settings that allow people to be out at work when there are some places where 95 per cent of people are going to work from home. So I think we've got some work to do there."
Westacott, who has been in a same-sex relationship for the past 37 years, says she would have liked to have seen more inclusivity in her earlier career.
"Most people kind of knew that I was in a relationship with a woman … but no one ever asked you what you did on the weekend. No one ever asked her name," she says.
That changed when Westacott started work at a new company in 2005, and one of the first things the chairman asked was her partner's name.
"[They said] please make sure she comes to the next partners' function. And that just was incredibly helpful. So I think normalising things in normal conversations would be very helpful," she adds.
But for those who aren't yet out in the workplace, asking about someone's personal life can also sometimes cause anxiety, Anna Brown, the CEO of Equality Australia, explains.
"I remember being asked the question, 'What did you do on the weekend?' and being filled with dread when I wasn't out at work and when I was a baby lawyer back in a corporate firm," Brown says.
Instead, Brown used general terms, like "my friend", and used gender neutral pronouns.
"But once I had come out, and for me, it really took a move to Sydney, and feeling more comfortable sort of making a fresh start … there were quite a few gay male [law firm] partners. And that made all the difference," she says.
"There weren't any women, something which has changed now. But you know, having those role models was really important."
'You can see what's possible'
Anna Brown says there's plenty workplaces can do to hire and retain diverse employees, and to create a genuine sense of belonging at work.
"We need to create workplaces that include, accept and celebrate everyone in the community, and that looks different for everyone in the community," she says.
She recommends getting acquainted with different groups such as the Diversity Council of Australia, which offers a variety of programs and resources.
"Some of those steps include obviously training and getting your workforce in a space together, where they learn more about all of the different parts of the LGBTIQ+ community, and how they can be a better ally and show their support internally, and also outside in the real world," she says.
Ryan Phillips, a proud trans man from Western Australia who now lives and works in Melbourne would like to see greater visibility of LGBTQIA+ people in leadership roles.
"I'd always been deeply fearful in the early days of my career when I was a private sector lawyer, about what transition would mean," he says.
"I figured that'd be the end of my career, because when you look around, who else can you see?
"If you can't see anybody, you can't see what's possible."
Inclusion is for everyone
If you want to become a better ally, don't be afraid to ask respectful questions, Sturgiss says.
"I suppose there's a big fear out there of political correctness. People are now becoming frightened that if they don't know, they're not going to ask the question," he says.
"Not because they don't want to seem silly, but because they're frightened of getting it wrong. And they're frightened of being yelled at and being corrected and chastised about it."
He says if you don't know something, just ask, and if you do know, then you're responsible for teaching others.
Westacott says it's important to remember that inclusion means including all workers and that "we're very careful and sensitive to everybody's feelings".
"The workplace has to be safe and inclusive for everybody."
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