BBC wants 50% of LGBT staff to be “out”

[PPNC]

The new BBC diversity plan wants at least 50% of LGBT staff to be “out” to their boss. AIBU to think this is regressive and insane?

Why should I (if I were both gay and worked at the BBC), say “hey boss person, I like shagging other women!”. Why are they asking instead of aiming for it not mattering who I choose to bump uglies with,
as it doesn’t affect my ability to do my job and is not really anybody else’s business?

Fully happy to be re-educated and told that A - the DM have read it wrong (as they are an agitator totally possible), or B - it’s essential for equality.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9295787/amp/BBCs-diversity-directive-Director-Tim-Davie-launches-bottom-shake-up.html

Is this a target for Stonewall Champions? I noted a company I work with (not the BBC), and used to work for, has set these targets too. I'm glad I don't work there any longer. Like pp, I'm bi, and it's none of their business. Also like pp I wonder how 50% will be measured. It becomes a meaningless measure.

Why are some posters seeing this as a bad thing? They’ve obviously given themselves a stretching target, but it’s also showing the type of organisational culture they want to have - one where you can be yourself and not have to hide some part of you or fear talking about your same sex partner. This is a good thing, it’s not about political correctness.
My husband once said to me that I work with a lot of gay people. He’s right, there are more than in his organisation. But it’s most likely because we value inclusion and diversity and attract people who also feel the same, and I think it’s self fulfilling that the more openly gay people there are in an organisation the more gay people will apply for jobs there. How can this be a negative thing?

Nope, not regressive or insane. Hiding your sexuality at work - which is essentially what you do when you're not out - can be really stressful.
I know, because I've done it.
It's not about announcing who you're shagging to the office, it's about being able to talk about what you did at the weekend without hiding that that you have a wife instead of a husband. About being more open about your life with people you spend a LOT of time with, without being worried that they'll start acting odd with you ( also happened to me)

Haha that is so dumb. How will they ever know whether 50% are out. What plonkers.

And the 50% thing is because it's easier to be open and yourself when there are others like you visible, and it's harder for the dickheads to make a big deal of it when they see other people are gay too. maybe even people they respect...

But think people who don't want to 'bring their whole selves to work' should be respected. I mean, because they choose not to, rather than because they feel they can't.

@FrickinA

Nope, not regressive or insane. Hiding your sexuality at work - which is essentially what you do when you're not out - can be really stressful. I know, because I've done it. It's not about announcing who you're shagging to the office, it's about being able to talk about what you did at the weekend without hiding that that you have a wife instead of a husband. About being more open about your life with people you spend a LOT of time with, without being worried that they'll start acting odd with you ( also happened to me)

Yep, I’m getting married in April if the road map goes as planned, none of my colleagues will know I’ve got married outside of HR staff.

I can't possibly see how they would work out their numbers? This also very much depends on your relationship with your boss- I have work colleagues I chat to about my personal life, and others I don't. What if you just don't ever make small talk to your boss? Seems bizarre to insist work have to know about your personal life.

I was still in the closet with a lot of clients, and you might think - well, yeah of course. Why would the want to know who you're shagging.
But actually, as you get to know clients better, they do ask about your life or hobbies or it does some up that you went for a mini break somewhere they love, and that's a nice connect, a shared experience, except I'm feeling awkward trying to watch the pronouns so I don't accidentally out myself. Because, actually who knows how the client really is about gay people.

'Yep, I’m getting married in April if the road map goes as planned, none of my colleagues will know I’ve got married outside of HR staff.'

THIS in spades. I mean for most people, certainly heterosexual people a marriage should be cause for celebration. They sure a hell wouldn't feel they had to hide it from everyone but HR.

I understand their thinking behind it and completely agree that workplaces should strive to make people feel comfortable to come out if that is what they want to do. But I don't understand how they could put a figure like 50% on it...Why aim for a figure like that? And how could they possibly know what percentage of LGBT people are out?

How do you measure such a target? If half of them are still in the closet they aren't going to pop out of it briefly to let you know that's where they live! Ridiculous idea but very typical for the BBC.

Why would you tell your boss? I wouldn’t mention my sexuality at work at all, unless as pp said it’s general conversation and someone says my girlfriend/boyfriend.

We have an open culture at work though, my last 3 or 4 bosses have been gay and it’s as simple as just coming up in conversation when we’re talking about weekend plans, as pp said.

If I were a boss I’d be working on a culture where people don’t have to hide, or announce. Where it’s totally normal to ask a bloke if he’s bringing a partner to the office do and he says he’ll bring Dave.

They want to be a safe workplace for their LGBT staff. If you aren’t LGBT, you won’t appreciate why that’s important (I mean, you could try to empathise but based on this thread that appears to be harder than I would have thought).

Because that seems to be exactly what the BBC are doing seemingly @SimonJT it was to emphasise how ill judged such a measure seems to be.

Being gay surely shouldn’t mean you get shoehorned into some form of identity, to me it literally means, as with Hetero or anything else, that you feel sexually attracted to the same sex/both sexes. Anything else surely means that you are being boxed or stereo typed by sexuality. Which is ridiculous!

@MySocalledLoaf I absolutely can’t feel what it’s like not to feel safe to talk generally about my private life at work on the basis of being gay no.

I have felt it about being married to a Muslim (now ex), thankfully not at my current place but in others.

I am just not getting this approach to it, it feels like being “out” to your boss as a measure is a bit, odd...

I am lesbian. I’m out at work but I would not appreciate my employers leveraging this for their own benefit so they can claim woke points with Stonewall, who frankly act against my interests, or with anyone else for that matter.

It’s my life not something to measured, ticked off and quantified so that somebody can pat themselves on the back for being inclusive when it has literally nothing to with them.

Heteros wondering about this need to ask themselves whether they are "out" at work

‘ Being gay surely shouldn’t mean you get shoehorned into some form of identity, ’

It doesn’t. It literally just means you don’t lie or hide your personal life. I know a
lot of gay people and as far as I know out of the ones ( all of us at some point pretty much) who have not been out at work at some point it wasn’t because we were so intensely private that we didn’t want Our colleagues or boss knowing we were in a relationship.
It was fear of discrimination or bullying or lack of professional progress or just people getting weird about it that kept people quiet.
In fact, half of the replies here show exactly why they are doing the right thing.

How can people think we have equality when they see bollocks like this? Have you ever seen a headline ‘large organisation wants 50% of its heterosexual staff to discuss their private lives in order to virtue signal its woke credentials?’

I like to choose when and to whom I come out. My sexual orientation has nothing to do with anyone other than the person I’m in a relationship with, and it’s certainly nothing to do with my employer.

I’m bisexual but not everybody knows this about me or should and I certainly won’t be ticking any boxes at work, not because I worry I’d face any discrimination but because it’s bloody personal and I don’t want my preferences in my own private bedroom to be used as a vehicle in order to reach some plucked from the sky quota. What nonsense.

Why is it even relevant? I remember going to a presentation where they said it was important so you could talk about your partner and what you were doing at the weekend - but actually why do I need to know about your weekend? And do you want to know about mine?

“bump uglies”?

I'm not an Anglo. I'm an adherent of a minority religion. The first I don't elaborate on although as it's fairly obvious, if other people enquire I ask if they think my ethnic origins have a bearing on my ability to carry out the matter in hand. The second I can and do usually keep private.In youth I would openly disclose the second. I stopped disclosing because I routinely hear outrageously offensive and bigoted remarks. Just because people are polite to your face,doesn't change attitudes.I bide my time until I can publicly confront an offender about their intolerance. Even then, I don't make it about me or disclose my own minority status. It does not need to be my religion I call them out about. There's something that just does not seem right to me about making decent behaviour and attitudes dependent on workplace disclosure of sensitive personal data.

I imagine they think that there are gay people working there who feel like they have to hide their sexuality from their boss. And they want to do something about that. They are not forcing anyone to come out or to discuss their weekend against their will. But they do want to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable doing that if they want to.