They will never call me ‘she’ at work
Lisa Venter’s job is becoming an increasing source of frustration and anger. She cleans and packs shelves for a large retailer in a small Western Cape town. But it is the discrimination she faces at work that leads her to say: “It’s hard for me. I don’t want to work there because of this.”
Venter (not her real name) is a transgender woman. After one of her colleagues told her she would be “going to hell”, the 20-year-old lodged a complaint with the store’s manager. This yielded no results and only served to isolate her more as the discrimination intensified.
“Hulle gee my nou swaar goed om te doen; swaar dinge om te dra [they’re now giving me harder work to do; heavier things to carry],” she says, adding that she now feels forced to wear men’s clothing to work.
“I’m not happy. Because even if I wear men’s clothes, my body has changed so much because of the [hormone replacement therapy], that people can see that something about me is different to men.”
Venter is not alone. A 2014 study of queer discrimination in the workplace found 53% of queer workers hide who they are at work. The study, titled The Cost of the Closet and the Rewards of Inclusion, was compiled by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Hoping to create more safe working environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people, the South African LGBT+ Management Forum undertook the country’s first workplace equality index.
The idea was to enable companies to measure their performance on creating queer-friendly work environments using independently determined and researchbased best practices, “and to identify potential gaps”.
Seventeen companies across various sectors — collectively employing about 30 000 people — voluntarily participated in the study.
Generally the companies scored highest on training, with the majority having implemented some form of diversity training, but scored lowest on queer visibility at work.
The index also found most companies focused on structures — where outcomes were tangible — and not the behavioural culture, where they “struggle to make meaningful progress”.
“It is easy to write a policy; it is more challenging to create an environment where LGBT+ people can speak openly,” the study noted.
It recommended companies undertake a policy review with their queer staff and “seriously consider” programmes that would allow these employees “to connect, create visibility and drive changes in the workplace”.
Visible leadership support was also essential because “this has the potential to set the tone and culture of the whole organisation”.
Venter’s job might be a world away from the corporate environments surveyed in the index, but she hopes to relocate and get “a regte job” some day.
Although not sure exactly what kind of job she ultimately wants, for now her main requirement is respect.
“What I want is respect for who I am. I know my manager and coworkers here will never call me ‘she’, but I just want respect.
“Working at a place where I can fully be myself would be a big bonus. Net ’n plek waar ek kan werk as ’n vrou. En as Lisa. Dis regtig al. [Just a place where I can work as a woman. And as Lisa. That’s really all.]”