Discrimination in the Workplace among LGBT People in the United States - Report Example

Solutions to the problem: discrimination in the workplace among LGBT people in the United s Introduction Donaldson is a young man in his 20s who is employed in one of the leading shopping malls in New York. He belongs to one of the groups of the LGBT. His colleagues never new this until recently when one of his friends publicly accused him of belonging to that group. This has therefore put him in a lot of trouble as no one wants to be associated with him especially during assignments at the workplace. He has been finding his office with nasty writings describing his behavior and he has lost his secretary due to this. This and many other cases not reported are typical examples of discrimination at the workplace on the LGBT individuals which is rampant mostly in America. Due to the above case, we need to explore the causes of such behavior. Discrimination and victimization of the LGBT individuals in the United States of America is known to contribute to the unhealthy behaviors like risky sexual practices. This idea of discrimination tends to affect the status of employment, the ability to get and keep the insurance on health and finally the income of the victim. Also, makes it difficult for the victimized individuals to open up on their sexual life thus increasing their stress, limiting their social support and negatively affecting their health. (David M. Halperin). The employees in workplaces with LGBT people tend to discriminate them greatly. This is due to their varying or different approach to the general life. They can even resolve to physical abuse, psychological torture and any other forms of harassment. If the bills by the federal government of the United States are passed and made laws, they will help reduce the increased tendencies of discrimination to the LGBT people. The perpetrators will be made to face the law hence ending up in cells, jail terms or paying hefty fines. The companies they work for can also be shut down and their heads probed. (Laura Beth Nielsen) Causes of discrimination in the workplace among LGBT people in the United States Limited or lack of associations and groupings that fight for and protect the rights of the LGBT in America causes discrimination to escalate and get to harmful levels. The government is not therefore brought to task on how to help these individuals in the society. Such like occurrences also signify a less active civil society in a country and hence being unfriendly to the rights and privileges of the LGBT. The civil society and the associations for such individuals make them feel loved and like everyone in the society thus leading to giving them the courage and boldness to confront anyone who may want to discriminate them in the workplace. The discrimination, prejudice and victimization of the LGBT at their workplaces are heavily associated with mental disorders. Such disorders include general anxiety of the individual, drug or alcohol or subsistence disorders which are associated mainly with heavy use of drugs, conduct disorder where an individual does not behave normally, and higher rates of major depression. Most of these individuals in most cases experience these disorders in multiples. (Annette Friskopp) Further, lack of adequate information about these groups of individuals in the society tends to cause the discrimination. People who discriminate them therefore lack the adequate information about these individuals and therefore use the limited one they have to humiliate them. These individuals think that the LGBT people chose to be that way or are very evil. This doesn’t auger well with critical thinkers, religious leaders, researchers and scholars over the LGBT thus drawing evident parallels. Some additional causes include the lack of information that is appropriate about these individuals and their society, the existence of a limited number of movements, associations and groups that protect the victims, inadequate or lack of territory, federal and the state laws and regulations. Above all these causes, the inadequate or lack of territory, federal and state laws and regulations will always remain the major cause of the prejudice being experienced in the world today. The corresponding solutions to the above solutions These people have suffered for a very long period of time and it is time that this practice ends. The best solution to ending this is by the enactment of laws by the federal government of the United States of America that advocate for the rights of the LGBT. These laws need to clearly state the procedure of arresting and eventually trying of those found to have broken it in the court of law. These laws need to be made public to the whole America so that all Americans know it and start executing it. Nobody should claim anonymity of the law as the concerned authorities shall have done extensive public familiarization. (Michele Antoinette Paludi). While the solution of the enactment of laws by the federal government will cost roughly 10% of the United States of American budget to implement and execute, the social benefits created by the plan include the penalties for those causing violent attacks, the recognition of the same sex marriage by the federal government due to the SCOTUS of DOMA section 3 and other laws touching on LGBT individual’s wellbeing. This is in accordance with the Hate Crimes Law (11th, 2009). The laws enacted and eventually implemented by the federal government of the United States of America are credible. This is due to the laws being brought forward by some of America’s renowned scholars and experienced leaders and legislators who have seen and heard the plight of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender individuals in America. (Gold) The second solution implies involves the need for the government in conjunction with other stakeholders to come up with the best laws and regulations to this vice. The limited or inadequate number of associations and movements is notably a great deal which requires to be looked into. The presence of such movements helps individuals to express their feelings and thoughts about the practice. In addition, most states in America lack the territorial, federal and state laws that govern the conduct of the LGBT and generally the people over the discriminating the LGBT at the workplace. People therefore end up doing whatever they think over the LGBT knowing that no one will follow them and bring them to book. It therefore leads to unlawful sacking and termination of employment terms of the victims. Some states end up coming up with laws and regulations that completely block the employment of the LGBT individuals. This would be the best course of action because it is the government itself being involved. It will only require less support from the other non-governmental organizations and other like-minded groupings or organizations. Failed solutions The federal government of the United States of America and other stake holders in the fight against discrimination of the minority in the society such as gays, lesbians, bisexuals among others, has tried to come up with valuable solutions but unfortunately they have been failing. The solutions have been such that people are to be educated on the need and importance of accepting and treating well the LGBT individuals. This solution failed because the nongovernmental organizations and other movements did not take the measure seriously. They announced for once and for all and then kept quiet thus sparking any sense of seriousness in the American citizens. The brutal discrimination therefore went on as usual. (Laura Beth Nielsen). In addition, the movements also tried to come up with the policy of segregation where the victims of discrimination were isolated from other individuals and subjected to different conditions. They were given first priority in organization that allowed especially gay and lesbian practices, they were treated differently. This made individuals in these other heterosexual categories not to be happy hence raising alarm. Eventually, their solution failed forcing them to come up with another that would definitely go through. (Laura Beth Nielsen). This and many other failed solutions sparked the search for the perfect solution. This led to the joint efforts by the federal republic of the United States government in coordination of other organizations and movements to come up with the idea of legislation. The senate therefore was left with the task of ensuring the law has been clearly debated and only proper and universal sections left in the final draft. The senate is therefore in the process of collecting views from various stakeholders including the citizens, activism movements among many other responsible parties. Feasibility The enactment of these laws will lead to the securing of business with the clients from the public sector who want the nondiscrimination of employment or the policies for domestic partner benefits. This will assist the companies to strengthen trade with their partners thus operations. Also, it leads to a business attracting and serving better a customer base which is diverse. It will create a customer base encompassing people from different cultures who understand each other better. A person better goes to a company having many of his kind than the one without any. (Laura Beth Nielsen). Furthermore, the eradication of discrimination against the LGBT will lead to the creation of new ideas, thoughts and innovations which are generated by the drawing of a company’s workforce from diverse backgrounds and wide range of experiences and characteristics. This assists the company to stand the test of time and be only one coming up with varied innovations and inventions. (Endean). The morale of the employees, unions and customers is improved due to the firm’s positive response to their requests. It will make the firm be praised widely thus be as a way of its marketing and stronger building. There is an increased rate of job satisfaction by the individuals who were once discriminated against. They feel secure and settle to now work. Most of their time is spent working not thinking about how the abuse is ongoing. (J.D.). The workplace discrimination has real time economic consequences. Companies may suffer reduced or lower profits if they end up hiring employees who are not skilled and talented in those fields. This is due to their being in those conditions thus being discriminated. For them to be more competitive and earn a high profit, they need to employ qualified employs who have the necessary skills even though they are gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgender. A hostile environment of work can lead to a greater turnover in most cases. This therefore leads to inefficiencies in labor thus significant costs for the American businesses and other insignificant costs for the replacing of the qualified personnel. There a study that evaluated that the overall costs of the employer turnover caused by discrimination annually are $64 billion. (Laura Beth Nielsen). There is also the tendency of the reduced economic growth to the country. The idea of discrimination tends to reduce the morale and retention of the worker, thus contributing to reduced or slow economic growth. An environment which is hostile is in most cases not conducive to the optimal performance of the employees, hence reduced motivation and less creative and productive workforce. National economic growth is dragged when there are practices of discriminative recruitment. This facilitates serious and fatal economic consequences mostly at the macro level. Hiring that is prejudicial in most cases reduces the motivation for investment in areas such as education and training, thus degrading the level of skills and the capacity of the workforce of the United States. (Murphy). Reduced employment and the concept of underemployment mostly affect individuals who are discriminated. They are paid less amount of money and have lower chances of getting employed. There has been research on discrimination based on sexual which has shown that there are prejudices especially during the hiring process. There is also a large gap between gay employees in an organization and the heterosexual ones. Such kinds of discrimination limits the victim not to think of further education and training because they think that there is no need to advance in education due to the wide spread discrimination in the united states companies. This limits visionary development thus a dim future. With this, economic growth is slowed making the country to suffer the consequences. (Mezey). Opposition It is quite rational to argue that not everybody will find the above solutions to be practical. For instance, workplace discrimination exposes the businesses to lawsuits which are potentially costly. This occurs mostly in states which have outlawed the gay, bisexual, lesbians and transgender workplace discrimination. Such costs eventually lead to facilitate the organization’s loss of its profits in the name paying the legal charges and fines. In the year 2010, the 10 top most private complainant employment discrimination lawsuits cost firms more than $345 million (Murphy). The solutions are however not as costly as many would think. They have been adopted by America itself sometime back in fight against racial prejudice that has also been rampant in America. From what has been seen in the fight against racial discrimination worldwide, fight against all these other forms of discrimination cannot be halted financially. It is possible and the concerned forces and authorities cannot allow it to fail with the little funding it requires. Studies have conducted in this light and have shown that such kind of funding cannot make a significant mark on the economic wellbeing of the United States of America.(Gold) Conclusion As it has been outlined above, the best solution so far to this practice is through the legislation of laws which need to be implemented for results to occur. The victims need full time protection failure to which makes their lives hard. This effect further extends to the national economy as a whole. The implementation of the laws against this kind of discrimination is greatly achievable. The economy of the United States of America is one of the best in the world so far thus there being no worries over the implementation. The federal government has set aside funds which are to be used in the publicizing of the laws so that no individual within the United States can claim that they don’t know it. The financing of the bill and the laws can also be assisted by other nongovernmental organizations and movements that advocate for the rights of the gays, lesbians and the transgender. (Annette Friskopp). People need to take up this issue of discrimination against the LGBT in their hands. We are supposed to pressurize the government to up its game in the fight against this escalating discrimination. This issue of discrimination is a major problem in America and if not controlled early will heighten to dangerous levels. This is because it is costing America a lot of money, creating complications to the victims and their families and general negative effects. Leaders from the most affected states are supposed to be grilled over this issue and vow their support in the fight against this because they are representatives of all the people. The process of collecting people’s views should also be intensified for a better solution to this. I would recommend the laws to be very stiff on their violators for a better and equal America. Works Cited Annette Friskopp, Sharon Silverstein. Straight Jobs Gay Lives. Simon and Schuster,, 2010. David M. Halperin, Valerie Traub. Gay Shame. University of Chicago Press, 2009. Endean, Steve. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress. Routledge, 2006. Gold, Dana L. Law and Economics: Toward Social Justice. Emerald Group Publishing, 2009. Hunt, Dr Stephen. Contemporary Christianity and LGBT Sexualities. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2012. J.D., Barbara Kate Repa. Your Rights in the Workplace. Nolo,, 2010. Laura Beth Nielsen, Robert L. Nelson. Handbook of Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities. Springer, 2006. Mezey, Susan Gluck. Gay Families and the Courts: The Quest for Equal Rights. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Michele Antoinette Paludi, Florence Denmark. Victims of Sexual Assault and Abuse: Resources and Responses for Individuals and Families, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Murphy, Timothy. Readers Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies. Routledge, 2013. Nancy Vosburg, Jacky Collins. Lesbian Realities/Lesbian Fictions in Contemporary Spain. Bucknell University Press, 2011. —. Lesbian Realities/Lesbian Fictions in Contemporary Spain. Bucknell University Press, 2011. Robert Youdin, PhD, LCSW, Robert Youdin. Clinical Gerontological Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company, 2014. Read More