Sexual orientation discrimination in U.S. workplaces: objective and subjective analysis

Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Discrimination can be carried out in the work place through many different ways. Federal and state laws go on to prohibit employers from carrying out unfair practices like hiring or terminating on the basis of religion, race, sex, national origin, physical disability or origin. All these are factors about a person that can be used either in his favor or against him. Some states have also declared employment discrimination laws that basically forbid employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

It was earlier in November that the U.S. senate went on to approve the legislation that basically prohibit workplace discrimination that is being carried out based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The legislation was approved 64-30 (Lopez) The employee non-discrimination act or ENDA was first brought out in the public in 1994. Even though it was been almost twenty years ever since it was first introduced, it has been made into a law just now. It should be noted that as of now only 21 states have protections for the Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) employees. Discrimination against the LGBT community has become quite a problem in the professional world today. It has been seen that one out of the twenty complaints that are made in the workplace are from the LGBT employers.

Objective Condition

In order to look a social condition, the researchers need to view it from two different perspectives. Fuller and Myer stated that all social problems bring the objective elements along with them. It is quite important to have both the subjective and objective side to the social problem. The objective condition or definition can be measured or checked to see if really does exists or not. This can be either carried out through studies or researches where this community is interviewed and results and displayed in a statistical manner. Bias against this community is a major cause of discrimination in the work place. Many people are still against the mindset that this community has and therefore they dislike them from before. We should work to see why this discrimination occurs and what the consequences of this discrimination are. The point here is to collect the data and the proof and show that there is discrimination present in the workplace that is against sexual orientation.

Subjective Definition

On the other hand, a subjective definition is basically the awareness of the problem that is present. Eitzen et.al insisted that the subjective side of the problem would depend more on the time and the audience (p 8) This means that discrimination against the LGBT community would be seen more by people who belong to that community or are more accepting of that community now. Kirsch stated that discrimination faced by the lesbians and gays in the United States has been recognized by many of the theorists today. Subjective definition goes onto provide the solution to the problem as well. The objective condition would quite clearly show the consequences of this problem. However, the subjective definition goes onto provide with solutions to make the society better. The discrimination that is occurring in the workplace regarding this matter is going to create more and more unrest many different workplaces. This would really discourage these men and women and they would retaliate in negative ways. Another way subjectively, this problem is becoming more recognized now because this community has more rights now. The National Center for Human Rights Education went on to state these communities have just as much rights as all the other people living in the country. This led on to the amalgamation of the gay rights movement with that of principles of fairness and equality.

Value Conflict Theory

It should be noted that conflict theories are present to emphasize some the inequality that results in some social group. These theories go on to either critique the socio political structure of a society and they also draw attention to any sort of inequality in the society. The main basis of this theory rests in the idea that every society is build up of individuals who will have varying and conflicting values and interest. The value conflict theory states that social problems like discrimination in the work place would occur when groups with different values and morals would meet and compete. In this entire scenario, it is very crucial to understand the values of both these groups. After doing so, it is important to see which group has more power to enforce their own wishes against the other group.

It should be noted that conflict has risen in our society because the dominant thought is that marriage is a union between man and woman. Either it is marriage or any sort of intimate relationship, it should occur between women and men. The norm that has been established is that the men and men cannot be together and women cannot be together. Due to this reason, there are people who do not agree to the entire idea of being gay, bisexual, or lesbian. It is quite visible that our society is more biased towards straight sexual orientation. Patterson & Redding stated many sodomy statutes have gone to declare private consensual sexual acts between the same sex illegal.

This shows that discrimination is present in the legal system of the country. If one really thinks about it then the conflict of values has been present from the top most level. If a country's legal system goes on to declare something unlawful, the society is bound to follow. An example of that is that gay or lesbian couples or even individuals are not allowed to legally adopt a child.

One of the prepositions of the conflict theory is that people are not accepting of those with differences is because they feel that that this group would take over. If an analogy could be drawn, it should be noted that about fifty years ago, people were quite against the idea of interracial dating and marriage. People were so against it that it was outlawed at one point and time. However, today we see that people are dating and getting married and no harm came from interracial relationships as such.

Conflict theory is one of the many theories that can be used to explain why things like discrimination, manipulation of individuals and pressured behaviors take place in the society. It can be used to shown that there are internal problems in the society that make way for such unjust behavior to take place. It has been studied through the conflict theory that dominant groups would always attempt to have political, social and economical power over the groups that are subordinate. They enjoy it and use it to manipulate individuals in their environment.

A conflict theorist believes that every person is equal regarding of his race, gender or sexual orientated. However, it is the dominant groups that decide that what is right or wrong. Consequently, the laws that are made also work to favor the dominant groups more.

Deviant Behavior Theory

Any kind of behavior that results in the violation of social norms is termed as the deviant behavior. This kind of behavior is normally of the severity that it can cause disapproval from most of the people of the society. It should be noted here that deviance can be non-criminal or criminal in nature. The sociological discipline that is associated with crime is termed as criminology, meanwhile activities like excessive gambling, alcohol, being naked in public, stealing, playing with fire, lying, denying to bathe, cross-dressing and buying the services of prostitutes are some of the actions and behaviors that are considered to be deviant by most of the society (Anderson and Taylor).

The concept behind deviance is not a simple ne because norms tend to vary considerably in different groups, at different times and at different places. It will not be wrong to say that an action that is considered as being deviant by one group may be totally acceptable in the other group. For instance, in some regions of Muslim Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia, women are circumcised. This procedure is termed as infibulations and clitoridectomy and involves the dissection of the clitoris or the suturing of labia and is usually done without giving anesthesia to the women. When we talk about America, the idea of female circumcision that is also known as female genital mutilation is considered to be totally out of question. The reason behind this is that female genital mutilation is performed under unsterile conditions and therefore mostly leads to infections. It is performed in some parts of the world to oppress the women and to prevent them from having sexual pleasure.

There are many theories in sociology that relate to criminal and non-criminal deviance. One of the theories that need to be brought into limelight while discrimination over sexual orientation is being discussed is the Social control theory. This theory was developed by Travis Hirschi and is a kind of functionalist theory. According to this theory, deviance occurs when attachment of an individual or group to the bonds of the society are weakened. Sociologists believe that people take into consideration what others think about them and what is expected of them as responsible citizens, and this is what keeps them attached to the society and the social norms. Therefore, it should be noted here that socialization is an important phenomenon when it comes to producing conformity to social norms and rules. On the other hand, when this conformity is weakened or broken, that is when deviance occurs.

The main focus of the social control theory remains on the process through which deviants are attached, or if they are not, to common value systems and what kinds of situations cause some people to break their commitment to these social values. The social control theory also suggests that most of the people experience some stimulus towards the deviant behavior during a specific time but since their attachment to social norms is usually strong, this is what keeps them from becoming a part of deviant behavior.

Gays have been subjected to discrimination at their workplaces since a very long time. As explained above, discrimination is done on various grounds. In some workplaces, these people are even denied a position just because of their sexual orientation. Management of some organizations does not even allow gays to work at their offices. On the other hand, the ones that do not promote these people above a certain level. Apart from that, the gays are also generally less paid than their counterparts in some workplaces in the United States. The discrimination that is faced by the gay people can be explained by the deviance theories.

As it has been mentioned above that deviance is considered to be any sort of behavior that violates the social norms. Even though most societies accept gays as normal people, there are some societies and some people that are of the view that gay people demonstrate deviant behavior. Since this behavior does not come under the category of criminal deviance, legal proceedings cannot be carried out against these people. However, it is possible for the people to whom gays are unacceptable, to treat them with discrimination.

It should be noted here that discrimination is not done on the basis of sexual orientation in all workplaces in the United States. Nevertheless, there are some communities in which gays are not acceptable because of social, cultural as well as religious reasons. Needless to say, the gays working in such communities are likely to face discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

According to some psychologists, men who are sexually attracted to men are in fact suffering from some kind of a mental illness. This is the reason why some societies are unable to perceive these men as being normal citizens of the society. Moreover, some people are of the view that gay men are just not concerned about what society will think about them and therefore they are labeled as being deviant people by these people. It should be noted here that according to the Old Testament, homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, some people target gay men for discrimination because they reckon that these people are violating the rules put forth by the religion.

Blummer's career of a social problem

Herbert Blumer went on to talk about the stages in which a social problem develops. He stated that first and foremost the problem has to be born and socially recognized. The emergence of this social problem came out when there was a significant discrepancy noted in the wages of people who are homosexuals. Social legitimating is when the larger community goes onto realizing the problem. In other words, they figure out why exactly this is a social problem. Following that there is mobilization of action a social problem. The community and the society together try to figure out what can be done so it would not be a social problem. Following that an official plan is made and then the transformation of the plan into its implementation is carried out (Blumer 298)

Burg & Lein utilized general social survey data from the year 1991 till 1996 to show that homosexuals do go onto earn less than workers with the same qualifications. This was a contradiction to the normal perception of homosexuals being more affluent than their counterpart (Alsop) Regardless there is a significant earning gap present between those who are heterosexuals and those who are not.

It is quite simple as to why this became a social problem to start off with. There are people who object to homosexuality either on religious or moral grounds. When these people are placed in power, they use these religious and moral perspectives to discriminate against their employees. Results of a poll revealed that 27% of the employees would not be happy to have a homosexual manager at work. Furthermore, 25% of the people also believed that it is not illegal if a person is discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

Action and implementation

This social problem is basically there because of the bias that many people have regarding the LGBT community. The most simple solution to this problem is to change this bias so that discrimination is eliminated from the workplaces in America. Considering that this bias is present on moral and religious grounds, it is not possible to go on and change the mindset of millions of people. Therefore, an easier approach to tackle this issue to alter the government's standpoint on it. This way a large number of people will be forced to alter their thinking and be more accepting towards this community. Redistributive politics comes in where many groups go on to change their values depending on what the government's stance on this matter is. It is seen that people are affected by the government's stamp of approval or disapproval on a certain moral or social issue (Meier) This shows that the first thing can be done is to show that the government is not in favor of this sort of discrimination.

Slowly and steadily, many states and District of Columbia are making laws that go on to prohibit discrimination that is based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Regardless, a lot of work still needs to be done for the remaining majority of states. The END act would go on to give all the LGBT workers uniform and comprehensive protection in the workplace all over the country. This appears as the most convenient and organized formal plan that can bring an end to this social problem. This law basically goes on to prohibit civilian government and private employers from discriminating against persons only on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

It has been seen that about seven in ten Americans are in favor of the ENDA. This shows that public support in favor of ENDA has increased with time. The major opposition to this bill is coming from the Republicans. They feel that the law is not required because there is already a federal law present that goes on to prohibit workplace discriminates. The major risk in making this a law would be that employers could be perceived to be discriminating on the basis on gender orientation even though that would not be the case. The Senate has passed the ENDA and now it is up to the House to pass the act and expand the protection in workplace.

Conclusion

In a society where everyone is promised equal and fair treatment and is promised respect regardless of their differences, social justice is still lacking. Despite the changing and accepting attitudes towards homosexuals, discrimination and oppression is still present in the professional area. It is noted that the acceptance of diversity is very important to the survival of democracy. This concept has been initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his letter to the NAACP. He wrote that no democracy can live for long where it does not recognize the rights of the minorities. The society needs to accept that differences are not always bad. It should be known that acceptance of the homosexual community will allow both the communities to break away from the stereotypes and reach their true potential in all areas of life (McNeill 149)