"This report is derived from the research that the National Institute for Working Life is conducting under the theme “Working Lives in Urban Areas”. The theme covers research on current issues concerning problems and development opportunities in working life in the city. In the research, great emphasis is given to aspects such as gender, class, ethnicity, ”race” and sexual orientation to examine causes of social exclusion and inclusion.

For several years, interest organisations for homo- and bisexuals have requested that studies should be conducted on their members' working and living conditions. One reason is that there are indications that the health status among these groups is worse than among the heterosexual population. This led to that the government in December 2002 commissioned the National Institute for Working Life to conduct a study on homo- and bisexual women and men's working conditions. Within the framework of “Working Lives in Urban Areas”, a comprehensive questionnaire study, “Working Conditions and Vulnerability”, was carried out in 2003 and several in-depth studies were started. This report is based on the questionnaire study, which is part of the government commission.

In this report, we will present the extent to which women and men belonging to different trade union organisations perceived that discrimination occurred in the workplace because of sexual orientation. The report includes analyses of social support and homo- and bisexual women and men's openness about their sexual orientation in the workplace, as well as analyses of association between discrimination, lack of social support, health and openness.

A strong impression from these results is that there were no major differences between the central trade union organisations concerning the members' perceptions of discrimination in the workplace because of sexual orientation, social support, including social interaction with colleagues after work, and homo- and bisexual women and men's openness. However, there were large differences in the extent to which heterosexual and homo- and bisexual women and men experienced that discrimination occurred in the workplace because of sexual orientation. Among the participants, agreement was greatest about lack of social support in the workplace.

Lack of social support in the workplace is a large risk factor for developing poor health. For homo- and bisexual women and men, discrimination in the form of prejudices and harassment means further increased risk of poor health. Homo- and bisexual women and men's openness about their sexual orientation in the workplace is strongly associated with discrimination and lack of social support in the workplace.

An important general conclusion that can be drawn from the results presented in this report is that discrimination in workplaces because of sexual orientation occurs to a large extent, above all in the form of prejudiced colleagues. Moreover, it was apparent that there is a large discrepancy between perceptions of colleagues being prejudiced and that harassment occurred in the workplace. This could be interpreted as if there is a difference between thought and action. Therefore, it is important to work both against prejudices and discriminating actions against homo- and bisexual women and men in the workplace."

Support: Digital