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Gender Identity Discrimination Case Study

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What is the difference between sexual orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimination?
The term "sexual orientation" is generally understood to refer only to whether a person is homosexual (gay), heterosexual (straight), or bisexual, while "gender identity" refers to one 's self-identification as a man or a woman, as opposed to one 's anatomical sex at birth. Not all transgender people are gay. Many transgendered people identify as straight; many transgender women have male partners and many transgender men have female partners.
Why is sexual orientation diversity a relevant theme for organizations?
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation can take two forms: formal and informal discrimination (Croteau, 1996). Formal …show more content…

With respect to marketing side, the growth of the GLBT population within the market can be considered a potentially relevant consumer market that represents approximately 21 million individuals who possess yearly incomes that total more than $641billion (Witeck & Combs, 2006). According to Bell et al. (2011), ‘the estimated 8.8 million GLBT individuals in the United States and nearly four million in the United Kingdom are valuable current or potential employees, customers with significant purchasing power, and stakeholders with interest and influence’. Research has demonstrated that top managerial support is crucial to the enhancement of GLBT employees’ commitment levels (Day & Schoenrade, 2000). Managerial support should be articulated and translated into well formulated policies that allow sexual orientation diversity and into good implementation records and practices that reflect the inclusive climate of the organization. Colgan and Wright (2011, p.566) warned that, the commitment at top levels might not be well communicated to middle or lower level managers who might be unwilling to focus on GLBT workplace-related issues. Finally, these implications related to sexual orientation diversity should be considered relevant for large firms, as well as for small and medium sized organizations. Empirical evidence exists to support this claim. In fact, Day and Greene (2008) found that gay and lesbian employees who worked in smaller organizations were more affectively committed and satisfied than their counterparts who worked in larger

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