LGBTQ HUMAN RESOURCE CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE
Abstract
For a long time, the LGBTQ community had not been recognized by the government. However, after some time, the governments have identified this community and accepted that it should exist. Despite the community being recognized, it still faces a lot of challenges, and over the past few years, there have been debates about whether certain rights do take care of this community as well as they do for others. For this reason, this research was done to identify how the community is progressing in terms of having the member’s rights taken care of in the workplace. This research was done by referring to various articles and referring to the civil acts law. This paper aims at bringing out the issues that the LGBTQ community faces and specifically in the health care sector. Diversity in the workplace is not only about employing people from the LGBTQ community. These people need to get equal rights, just like the rest of the employees. They should not get any harassment and should have a good working environment too.
Introduction
The LGBTQ community has always been at a disadvantage in almost all social platforms. Right from social discrimination to workplace discrimination. There are even workplaces that cannot employ people from this particular community. This is bad, especially considering there are fights to support the marginalized in society this community included. The LGBTQ community in the workplace does not, however, have specific laws protecting them. A large number of people from this community have faced discrimination, although the nation has worked at ensuring diversity in the workplace. Businesses, however, can gain a lot from employing people from the LGBTQ community and providing them with a safe working environment because, just like any other community, it has productive and highly talented individuals.
Body
There has always been a question on whether the civil rights act of 1967 protects the LGBTQ community. It is always a question on whether this community is protected in terms of discrimination in the workplace due to sexual orientation. Workplace protection rights are covered such that age, sex, race, religion and even origin are covered in the act. When cases of discrimination on sexual orientation occur, the matter becomes an issue since there is no surety whether the health care community is inclusive. It is usually left up to the courts to decide if the community has protection from the act (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2020). The supreme court has had three cases involving the community as recent as October 2019. These are difficult cases to rule because judges are forced to sometimes venture into a field whereby the only congress is best suited to take care of. These cases indicate that people have had discrimination done to them because of their sexuality. Individuals as gays and lesbians are mostly affected since sometimes they might lose their jobs due to their identities. Court’s determination of the cases will greatly influence whether or not the civil rights act protects individuals from the community. However, the act can be interpreted to favour the community because, just like any other, they are individuals who are living with us but only with a different sexual preference. Another argument from this same point could be that the civil rights act in 1967 could not in any way implying protection for this community because back then, at this time, the community was non-existent in the sense that the government had not recognized it (Nagele-Piazza, 2020). In the United States, for instance, this community was legally accepted in 2003. Therefore, the argument could be that the community had not been approved at the time of doing the civil rights act and, therefore, not included.
Some people in healthcare believe those opposing the traditional sexual orientation are not of a sane mind. This has even been transferred to the workplace, which is why there are cases of discrimination in the workplace against the LGBTQ community. Gay people have long searched for equality, just like heterosexual people. Despite the law and some nations recognizing them, the issue s still prevalent (Cromwell, n.d.). The LGBT community is sometimes not supported even by family or other close people. Some are even neglected by their families and there is no equity in workplaces.
In the workplace, all individuals have the right to getting fair and equal pay. A pleasant working environment is also provided for all people in the workplace, regardless. Another reason that employees are entitled to in the workplace is to be treated with the utmost dignity. Being treated with respect also comes in hand as a benefitting right (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2020). The LGBTQ community, therefore, benefits from thee rights. As employees, they deserve to be respected, and this caters for individuals who might want to insult or sound disrespectful to them because of their sexuality. If all employers take to consider these rights, there should not be any problems with the LGBT community. The only place that the community is left vulnerable to is that there is no right that protects them from being fired because of their sexuality. If the recent cases are, however, determined and ruled on the favour of this community, then this will be a game-changer for all (Nagele-Piazza, 2020). If the supreme court does not interpret the civil acts law as protecting the community, it will be left vulnerable to discrimination. Most court cases are ruled according to precedent cases in a legal subculture, which even makes the decision of the supreme court more important. The supreme court made a decision on passing the ruling as discrimination on the basis of sex (Nagele-Piazza, 2020). Sexuality is the issue, and an instance whereby an employee is fired because of their sexual orientation is discrimination.
Title VII of the human civil rights act provides for all employees, even the LGBTQ individuals such that any form of discrimination to them as an employer will have consequences. If an employee offers preferential treatment to certain people and treats others in a different manner, he or she is liable to face the law. Employment decisions are in no way associated with whether an individual is transgender or heterosexual or gay (Besl et al., 2020). This cuts across even in employment because, as an employer, one should not stop hiring simply because the employee is from the LGBTQ community (Nagele-Piazza, 2020)y. Employers, however, have the opportunity to show their nondiscriminatory reasons for acting why they acted or not employing an individual in case one clam that this is the motive behind them facing discrimination. Some employees present their arguments that they have stemmed out of their religious beliefs. Employees have medical cover, and an employer might decide not to cover the medical expenses of a transgender person. According to civil rights act of 1967, this is discrimination in the workplace, even if the employer gives the argument that they are conflicting with his beliefs and morals.
The civil rights act of 1967 demands that all people get equal and good access to healthcare. This law has, however, been constantly abused because a lot of gay and transgender people have faced discrimination in hospitals. This has led even people from the community to have myths that they will be discriminated against (American College of Healthcare Executives. 2018). There is a lot of negativity with transgender people accessing medical care. Some have the belief that they will be denied treatment because of their sexuality.
According to Miller 2020, being a member of the LGBTQ community decreases the chance of an individual getting a job, especially in the health sector. Most employers do not reveal the status of their employees in terms of sexual orientation because of reasons best known to them. From the estimation of employees who reveal the number of LGBTQ individuals in the workforce, the percentage is 4.6% (Miller, 2020). There are a number of reasons why there are fewer LGBTQ individuals employed in the health sector. One of the reasons is that most people from these communities already feel isolated. Being in an environment that discriminates discourages one from even applying for employment in this sector. There are skilled people who have the qualifications to get jobs in the health sector, but because they fear stigmatization, they end up not going for the jobs. Stigmatization in this sector does not only come from co-workers but can also come from the patients. In the health sector, one gets to interact with a lot of people, which makes the probability of interacting with negative people even higher.
There are people who have homophobia and transphobia. This has limited the number of people from the LGBTQ community accessing medical care. These kinds of people are mostly responsible for the discrimination we have in the health sector. Some of these people are patients or even workmates in the health centres, and they behave in a certain way that makes the LGBTQ people feel bad about themselves. The impact of this kind of people is that they are the reason why there is barely any progress being seen in the health sector in regards to LGBTQ acceptance. Having diverse staff is important because the LGBTQ people can at least identify with people of their own and therefore get access to medical care (Eliason & Chinn, 2018). There is always the importance of getting people who one identifies with because they will feel less judged by society. Lesbian women especially need diversity in hospitals because they are more vulnerable to things like breast cancer (Besl et al., 2020). This is because a large number of them go for screening and do not have people to tell them why they should do things like screening. Diversity will encourage these women to be more open. The implication of not complying with JCAHO is that it might cause to closure in hospitals. It nullifies a hospital’s accreditation which includes cutting them off from several private insurers’ support and Medicare financial support. Additionally, discrimination can lead to many effects such as psychological effects especially towards their partner or relationship, depression, poor health, stigmatization, and changes in health behaviors.
Discussion
Human resource departments should be keener on listening to employees. Employees from the LGBTQ community basically get bullied time and again in the workplace, and some are afraid to stand up for themselves. Sometimes it is because of the attention that it might draw or other times they feel embarrassed for who they are and are not sure whether their complaints will be taken seriously or they would just be adding more problems to themselves. To comply with the supreme court ruling, employers can generate strict rules and guidelines that will make sure other employees do take the ruling seriously. Employers have the responsibility of ensuring the employees are safe at work (Cromwell, n.d.). Employers should also educate their employees on respecting all people and their colleagues in the workplace (Flynn et al. 2016). An employer can also spell out the consequences, such as one losing their job over discriminating against others and being sued.
Employees should be more welcoming to the idea of diversity in the workplace. As an employer, supporting this community will make the rest of the employees follow suit. I would recommend that instead of the employees leaving it up to the government to provide protection to their LGBTQ employees, one should instead start with formulating laws that will protect the people in this community (Miller, 2020). This way, the employees from this community can feel safer and even be more productive. Not including the rights of these employees in the guidelines is a clear show of negligence and only worsens the situation. The aspects that warrant further investigation is that people should not be subjected to discrimination due to their identity. Plausibility needs to be a condition for a holistic approach and medical investigation to ensure that a potential value of LGTBQ research is warranted. Appropriate treatment options and access to medical care should be fair to all people; they all deserve the best.
Conclusion
LGBTQ workers are underrepresented in the workplace. They sometimes have issues but doe to their small numbers, and the fact that their leaders are usually heterosexual limits them from advocating for their rights. Most of them suffer in silence because of discrimination and fear of losing their jobs. Human resource departments are present in companies for the welfare of the employees but sometimes are ineffective for this marginalized group. Some human resource heads are homophobic or transphobic, which does not in any way help individuals from the community in such cases. The supreme court ruling entails that workers who are transgender or gay be treated the same way that others are treated. In case one finds himself treating an individual differently because of their sexual preference, he will have violated the rule in the civil acts law that protects workers from discrimination on race, gender, religion and sex. Human resources should always reach out to these people and ensure that their welfare is secured. Reforms in the workplace should also be made to include people from the LGBTQ community rather than exclude them. Discrimination of the LGBTQ community does not go in line with the ethics in medicine, which require a physician to work at improving public health. According to the civil rights of act 1976, Hippocratic Oath is agreement with non-discrimination, yet many people fail to adhere to this rule. Many health physicians have taken this oath to ensure equity. Looking at many LGBTQ people, they receive a lot of problem, which leads to social injustice and personal harm.
References
American College of Healthcare Executives. (2018, November 1). The healthcare executive’s role in fostering the inclusion of LGBTQ patients and employees. https://www.ache.org/about-ache/our-story/our-commitments/policy-statements/healthcare-executive-role-in-fostering-lgbtq-inclusion
Besl, W., Johnson, L., Rouchard, J., Swanbeck, S. (2020). Employment discrimination against LGBT persons. Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, 21(2), p.33.
Cromwell, K. (n.d.). Somewhere over the rainbow: defining the future for the LGBT workforce. Society for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/lgbtworkforce.aspx
Eliason, M.J. & Chinn, P.L. (2018). LGBTQ cultures: what health care professionals need to know about sexual and gender diversity. (3rd vol). Wolters Kluwer Health.
Flynn, W., Mathis, R.L., Jackson, J., & Valentine, S. (2016). Healthcare resource management. (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning
Miller, S. (2020, June 30). Three checklists for avoiding LGBTQ discrimination in your benefits program. Society for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/3-checklists-for-avoiding-lgbtq-discrimination-in-your-benefit-programs.aspx
Nagele-Piazza, L. (2020, June 24). What does the high court’s LGBTQ ruling mean for employee benefits? Society for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/what-does-the-high-court-lgbtq-ruling-mean-for-employee-benefits.aspx
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2020, June 30). What you should know: the EEOC and protections for LGBT workers. Title VII, 29 CFR, Part 1604. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-eeoc-and-protections-lgbt-workers