Coming Out or Not? How Nonheterosexual People Manage Their Sexual Identity at Work

Beatrice Gusmano

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DOI: 10.2190/WR.13.4.g

Abstract

The context of workplaces could be defined as heteronormative, from a structural, discursive and practical point of view. Sexual orientation is still an underresearched area of diversity in work organizations (Ward & Winstanley, 2005) because of the difficulties in accessing information around themes connected to sexuality. As a result, the framework provided by the present study produces a significant contribution to our understanding of minority sexual identity at work. Through the conceptual framework of performativity, this article's aim is to give voice to every individual who doesn't recognise her/himself in a heterosexual definition of her/his orientation, desires, behaviours, emotions, and identities. I propose to adopt Greimas's semiotic square (1970) in order to define a heuristic device relating to the "disclosure" and "silence" possibilities in workplaces. The empirical material in this article is based on 34 in-depth interviews conducted with nonheterosexual members of private and public Italian organizations.

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