LGBT News Why Is Science So Straight?

I plan to go into STEM related work. This is interesting, actually. I never knew there was a difference in percent of out LGBT people in this industry. I would have expected it to have more out LGBT people, tbh.

 

I think this is something that varies from lab to lab and may be more of a problem in the US. Every lab that I worked for in the UK had at least one other out LGBT person but I never came across any out LGBT scientists when I worked in the US. I'm not sure if this was because of the culture over there of focusing purely on your research while at work and avoiding any distractions such as discussing your personal life. Or because everyone was working 60 hrs plus per week, so no-one had time for much of a personal life anyway.

 

The types that work in STEM fields are typically not going to see much point in advertising their social lives. You will consistently get a much lower number than the actual one because of this.

 

For the alliteration.

 

Some workplaces are obviously homophobic, so you tend to keep your private life private.

In some other workplaces everyone's a workaholic so it doesn't matter.

I've seen and experienced both. It really depends on the workplace as a whole.

 

I guess your mileage varies depending on your lab/institution. I work in a lab in a conservative southern state, but there are a good number of openly lgbt people in my department. It's never caused any problems as far as I know. People are pretty open about their personal lives too.

 

I tend to find a lot of gay guys working in the sciences.... anecdotal though.

 

Funnily enough I just finished reading an article about how we ignore the humanities and social sciences at our peril. Irregardless I imagine it has to do with the amount of schooling involved perhaps. To get into those fields you need to have very high GPAs normally and its hard to get a good GPA when your in a group of people who normally have higher tendencies toward drugs, alcohol, mental health issue, low self esteem etc...

Another problem is that amongst social scientists there is no consensus on how many LGBT people are out there. Its entirely possible that this researcher used a study that suggests that there is more then there are of us. Hard to say.

Regardless its good that this is an issue that is receiving attention and research so that if it is indeed a problem governments, universities and private industry can address it.

 

Science is one of the least homophobic industries you can work in. For the record I work in the sciences, and I am out at work.