People of all sorts can suffer discrimination at work. Sometimes it comes from the business itself, due to there being a longstanding bias that has become inbuilt into company systems over the years. Other times, it is more the fault of one or more individuals, such as the manager conducting the interviews or choosing who gets a promotion.
Sometimes it is relatively clear that discrimination is at play, but often it can be hard to prove. One of the reasons for this is that an employer might not treat others with a similar characteristic to yours, such as race, religion or a disability, in the same way.
It’s not always about just one thing
Maybe you initially think that the reason you did not get a chance to interview for an improved role was due to your skin color. Then you look around and realize that while most of the supervisory team do conform to a certain stereotype, there are one or two people with the same skin color as you who did make it higher up the ladder.
Perhaps it then springs to mind that maybe it is the fact that you are gay that is the issue for your employer. Then, on thinking about it a bit more, you realize that while the management team is mostly straight, you can think of two examples among them who are not.
In cases like this, the reason for the discrimination may not be attributable to just one factor. It may only be occurring because of the combination of two or more of your protected characteristics. It might be that your employer is not giving you the opportunity to apply for promotions because they have a hang-up about gay people of your skin color.
California has laws that specifically address such situations. Learning more may help if you are being denied opportunities due to discrimination at work.
