Out at Work found few lesbian, gay and bisexual workers were open with customers

The Out at Work findings

In 2018, Diversity Council Australia published Out at Work, a study drawing on more than 1,600 LGBTIQA+ workers. Its headline finding was that 32 per cent were out to everyone at work, even though 74 per cent said that being out at work was important to them. The results varied considerably across the groups surveyed. Sixteen per cent of bisexual workers and 14 per cent of workers with more than one LGBTIQA+ attribute were out to everyone, while 28 per cent of trans or gender diverse workers were out to no one, compared with 4 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual workers.

The result most directly relevant to business appears later in the report, which found that 49 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual workers openly discussed their identity with colleagues, whereas 9 per cent did so with clients or customers.

Disclosure to colleagues and disclosure to customers

The study concerns employees, was conducted several years ago and cannot be extended to describe business owners in 2027. It is relevant to LGBTIQA+ business because it distinguishes between being out among colleagues in a workplace and being out to the people who pay for one’s work. These are separate decisions, and on this evidence the second is made far less often.

For an owner, customers are the source of the business’s income, which makes the second decision the more consequential one. Visibility can bring a business to the attention of LGBTIQA+ networks, festival audiences and peers, but whether it carries any cost depends on factors that only the owner can assess, including the industry, the location, the customer base and the owner’s own circumstances.

Implications for recognising LGBTIQA+ ownership

Supplier diversity systems depend on disclosure. Supply Nation verifies Indigenous ownership and WEConnect International certifies ownership by women, and an LGBTIQA+ certification would similarly require owners to declare their sexual orientation or gender identity to a certifier, and potentially to every buyer who searches its register. The Out at Work findings indicate that any such system should treat disclosure as a central design consideration. If most lesbian, gay and bisexual workers in 2018 did not discuss their identity with customers, it cannot be assumed that most LGBTIQA+ owners would want their identity listed where buyers can see it. Verification need not involve public disclosure, since a system could be voluntary, restrict who can see an owner’s status and leave each owner in control of where that status is shown, and these design choices should be made in consultation with owners.

The study also found that being out was associated with better outcomes. Workers who were out to everyone were 50 per cent more likely to innovate and 28 per cent more likely to provide excellent customer or client service, while those who were not out to everyone were about twice as likely to feel down. Employees in highly inclusive cultures were three times as likely to be out to everyone as those in non inclusive cultures. The study does not establish the direction of these relationships, but they suggest that people are more likely to disclose in environments where it is safe to do so.

The willingness of LGBTIQA+ owners to disclose therefore depends in large part on whether the buyers, platforms and certifiers asking for disclosure have created conditions in which it is safe and in which the benefits justify the risk. The State of LGBTQ+ Business in Australia will ask owners about this directly, using a first point of contact that does not require anyone to disclose anything.

Sources

1. Diversity Council Australia, Out at Work: From Prejudice to Pride, 2018
2. Supply Nation
3. WEConnect International
4. 4. Pride in Business, Research framework (framework page on this site)

Source pages last checked 19 October 2026.