Data from UCLA recently revealed that around 10% of gay people suffered some form of discrimination during the Covid pandemic.  This discrimination prompted many LGBT employees to engage in various “covering” behaviors to try and avoid harassment or discrimination.

Research from Anglia Ruskin University suggests that these problems are especially pronounced during economic recessions.  This includes significant discrepancies in job offers, interview offers, and pay in comparison to their heterosexual peers.

“This is the first study to examine how economic downturns correspond with increasing biases against gay men, and finds that the two periods of economic recession were disproportionately harmful to gay men in the labor market,” the researchers explain.

Labor market discrimination

The researchers created applications for a number of fictional job candidates, with one being for a gay man and the other for a heterosexual man.  In all other ways, the applications were identical in terms of the experience and skills of the candidates.  They both applied for the same job vacancy.

The selected job was a low-skilled, full-time vacancy in the private sector that had appeared on the website of a local newspaper.  After the applications, a questionnaire was distributed to try and understand the attitude of the employer towards homosexual male employees.

The study was linked to the health of the economy and took place in Greece during the two major economic recessions experienced in 2013/14 and 2018/19.  It also replicated a similar study conducted in 2007/07, which was a period of relative economic stability.

Lack of opportunities

That previous study found that gay job candidates were invited for an interview nearly 4% less than their heterosexual peers on average.  The figure for 2013/14 was 5.7%, however, and lept to 7.1% in 2018/19.

“Prejudices against minorities might rise during periods of economic uncertainty,” the researchers explain. “We know that economic downturns correlate with sex discrimination, xenophobia, hate crimes, intolerance, and the denial of fundamental human rights.

Sadly, this also extended to offers for interview, with gay men 26.4% less likely to be offered an interview than heterosexual men in 2006, but this jumping to 28% in 2013 and 30.4% in 2018.  What’s more, this is at a time in which all applicants were less likely to get an interview because of the economic hardship of the time.

The questionnaires provided a degree of explanation for this trend, with employers’ attitude towards gay men becoming increasingly homophobic during the recessions.  Sadly, there was a 26% increase in the belief that gay men should adopt the kind of hiding tactics the UCLA research uncovered, with a 17% increase in the general belief that relationships between two men were wrong.

“Therefore positive workplace practices and antidiscrimination laws can have an important role in reducing workplace biases against LGBTIQ+ people,” the researchers conclude.