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Supplementary resources to accompany
“Improving data and policies to support LGBTQ+ people in STEM”
[link, citation]

Contents:

  1. Detailed recommendations 
  2. Guides and resources
  3. LGBTQ+ in STEM literature
  4. Government datasets and reports

Disclaimer: These resources were compiled through the authors’ experiences and connections with stakeholders but should not be viewed as an exhaustive list. Please feel free to suggest additions or updates by emailing coffield@umd.edu 

Annex 1: Beyond data collection: Recommendations for supporting LGBTQ+ communities in STEM

Currently there is limited quantitative data regarding LGBTQ+ demographics in STEM, let alone the effectiveness of different policy interventions to improve LGBTQ+ retention. In fact, truly data-driven policy may be an impossible goal, given the complexity of the issue and the myriad of concurrently changing cultural and external factors. However, despite these limitations, there does exist sufficient qualitative data and information to be able to offer data-informed suggestions for different stakeholder groups. We know from the work of NGOs and academics that LGBTQ+ people are underrepresented in STEM fields, experience high rates of harassment and violence, and generally do not feel as supported as the general population in STEM.

While longitudinal, secure, and flexible data collection is a key need, it should not be the only focus. It is also important to acknowledge the risks that come with data collection, including the potential to bring unwanted attention to at-risk groups, to exclude some groups in the process, or to use lack of data as an excuse for avoiding much-needed action (additional reading: Queer Data by Kevin Guyan).

Beyond data collection, key needs include (1) mentorship and career development resources for LGBTQ+ people in STEM, (2) more inclusive healthcare, travel, and anti-harassment policies, (3) expansion of single-user restroom facilities, and (4) greater buy-in from leadership to be proactive in supporting LGBTQ+ students and employees.

Below is a summary of suggestions compiled from our stakeholder interviews and literature review. If implemented, these workplace improvements would benefit everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ communities.

Universities and workplaces

Cultural

  • Active institutional support, clear expectations, and accountability around affirming language, pronouns, conduct, etc below
  • Language: Expect gender-neutral and inclusive language (e.g. “everyone”, “folks” in place of “ladies and gentlemen”)
  • Pronouns: Normalize the optional sharing pronouns in emails and name tags. This helps people not assume pronouns and makes trans and non-binary folks not feel singled out
  • Peer-to-peer accountability: e.g., faculty correcting other faculty on pronouns or homo/bi/transphobic language
  • Messaging: Be overtly LGBTQ+ friendly on websites and around campus; display flags, banners, lanyards year-round and not just during Pride month (which can be negative attention); vocally support LGBTQ+ employees and share their stories
  • Events: Ensure that events and activities are accessible to everyone in terms of format and price
  • Dress code: Create culturally sensitive and gender-neutral expectations around what it means to dress professionally
  • Gatekeeping: Support all students under the assumption that they are capable and belong on campus
  • Leadership: University leadership should be vocal LGBTQ+ allies and advocates, providing top-down attention to LGBTQ+ issues and setting a clear message. University leadership should open dialogue with other universities about best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion
  • Advocacy: Encourage allies to advocate for policy changes and legal protections for LGBTQ+ people beyond the university

Networking

  • Help create spaces, community, networking within science (burden usually falls on queer people to create their own spaces)
  • Mentorship programs
  • Career development, help securing funding
  • University outreach, recruitment, help queer people apply for jobs
  • Reach out to NGOs who are eager to partner for events and community resources

Resources

  • Fund diversity professionals, guest speakers, and committee members
  • Appoint LGBTQ+ liaison to DEI committees
  • Expand HR support for LGBTQ+ issues; HR should be active allies and should be trained to recognize bigotry and strategies being used to harm trans people
  • Fund LGBT resource centers or employee resource groups, including social events, mentorship, and professional development
  • Expand healthcare coverage - i.e. medical leave, parental leave, mental health, reproductive health, and transition-related care (gender affirming surgery, vocal therapy, hormones)
  • Fund allyship training delivered by diverse groups of LGBTQ+ individuals
  • Provide single-user restrooms in all buildings

Policies

  • Travel: should be conscious of geographic variations in homophobia and transphobia; divest from travel to unsafe states or countries for any staff
  • Anti-harassment & discrimination: should explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity, with accountability structures for misconduct. This should include policies for field or site work.  
  • Field/site work: should have clear policies on appropriate conduct, with accountability for misconduct
  • Language: code of conduct should include an expectation of using gender-neutral language for groups or ambiguous audiences, respecting gender identities and pronouns
  • Pronouns and name changes: should be a clear, simple, and fast process for updating one’s name and/or pronouns across all internal systems; should not depend on the legal name change process which often takes months or years
  • University housing: should offer explicitly LGBTQ-inclusive housing areas, provide more single-occupant living spaces and restrooms, and allow for roommate reassignments upon request

Data

  • Collection should include open-ended self responses for gender identity and sexual orientation upon application, admission, and exit
  • Should be specific, inclusive, intersectional, longitudinal
  • Should be stored securely and not associated with individuals’ identifying information; should protect privacy especially when sample size is small, acknowledging that misuse of this information could cause direct harm
  • Categories should be regularly revisited as common understandings of gender and sexuality evolve
  • Consult with academics who have experience in collecting and studying this data
  • Leverage qualitative data that is already available; listen to the stories and experiences of those being harmed

Government

Policies

  • Expansion of civil rights protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Federal recognition of LGBTQ+ as a protected group which would help drive data collection, research, funding, and other resources
  • Establishment of harmonized standards, with input from LGBTQ+ communities, for SOGI data collection
  • The UK Government Equalities Office (GEO) should work with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to develop a dedicated task force for analyzing the English and Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish SOGI items and correlate them to STEM work fields.
  • The GEO should address STEM workplace protections and barriers in their strategic plan.
  • The UK Department of Education should include SOGI items on all demographic surveys
  • Formation of an interagency working group in the US and the UK on LGBTQ+ retention in STEM to identify and implement policy interventions
  • Passage of the LGBTQ Data Inclusion Act or equivalent
  • Creation of a White House LGBTQ+ Policy Council
  • Creation of a White House Initiative on improving educational outcomes for LGBTQ+ communities
  • Ensure proper funding and staffing support for SOGI data collection initiatives and STEM specific analysis such as those in the NIH, National Center for Educational Statistics, and the US Census Bureau
  • Revisit the US Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment to identify ways in which SOGI items could be asked on surveys of students under 18 such as the US Department of Education’s High School Longitudinal Study.
  • Incorporate explicit and inclusive SOGI items on the US Census and the American Community Survey
  • Incorporation of LGBTQ+ retention as a key goal on the strategic plan of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM education.
  • STEM specific SOGI analysis on the Office of Personnel’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey

Funding agencies

Data

  • Tracking of optional, self-described SOGI for all applicants and awardees
  • Provide support for qualitative and interdisciplinary work to investigate intersectionality and the experiences and needs of smaller communities within the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Policies

  • Establish clear process for revoking or banning funding to perpetrators of harassment on the basis of SOGI
  • Create LGBTQ+ retention funding programs like those that exist for other minority groups
  • Help facilitate transfers of funded individuals out of hostile geographies

Scientific societies

Data

  • Include SOGI data collection when necessary for demographic research purposes, such as in climate surveys
  • Encourage conference attendees to specify pronouns if desired

Networking

  • Actively help create spaces and fund events for LGBTQ+ professionals to network rather than expecting LGBTQ+ people to create their own spaces
  • Partner with NGOs and universities to advance support for LGBTQ+ communities in STEM

Annex 2: Guides and Resources

Annex 3:
LGBTQ+ in STEM academic literature

Atherton, Timothy J., et al. "LGBT climate in physics: Building an inclusive community." American Physical Society, College Park, MD (2016). https://www.aps.org/programs/lgbt/upload/LGBTClimateinPhysicsReport.pdf 

Barriers LGBTQI+ people face in the research funding process. TIGERS (2019) https://osf.io/dnhv8/ 

Barthelemy, Ramón S., et al. "Workplace climate for LGBTQ+ physicists: A view from students and professional physicists." Physical Review Physics Education Research 18.1 (2022): 010147. https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.010124 

Bilimoria, Diana, and Abigail J. Stewart. "" Don't ask, don't tell": The academic climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender faculty in science and engineering." nwsa Journal (2009): 85-103. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20628175 

Campbell-Montalvo, Rebecca, et al. "" Now I'm not afraid": The influence of identity-focused STEM professional organizations on the persistence of sexual and gender minority undergraduates in STEM." Frontiers in Education. Frontiers, 2022. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.780331/full 

Cech, Erin A., and Michelle V. Pham. "Queer in STEM organizations: Workplace disadvantages for LGBT employees in STEM related federal agencies." Social Sciences 6.1 (2017): 12. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/1/12 

Cech, Erin A., and Tom J. Waidzunas. "Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM." Science advances 7.3 (2021): eabe0933. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe0933 

Coon, Jaime Jo, et al. "Best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion during ecological fieldwork: Considering safety, cis/heteronormativity, and structural barriers." Journal of Applied Ecology (2022). https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14339 

Exploring the workplace for LGBT+ physical scientists. Institute of Physics, Royal Astronomical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry (2019). https://www.rsc.org/globalassets/04-campaigning-outreach/campaigning/lgbt-report/lgbt-report_web.pdf 

Formby, Eleanor. "How should we ‘care’ for LGBT+ students within higher education?." Pastoral care in education 35.3 (2017): 203-220. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02643944.2017.1363811 

Freeman, Jon. "LGBTQ scientists are still left out." Nature comment (2018): 27-28. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05587-y 

Freeman, Jonathan B. "Measuring and resolving LGBTQ disparities in STEM." Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7.2 (2020): 141-148. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2372732220943232 

Garvey, Jason C., et al. "The impact of campus climate on queer-spectrum student academic success." Journal of LGBT Youth 15.2 (2018): 89-105. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19361653.2018.1429978

Gonzalez, Ángel de Jesus, and Antonio Duran. "Category is, supporting BIQTPoC at community colleges: A systematic literature review to aid community college leaders in advocacy." New Directions for Community Colleges 2023.202 (2023): 169-183. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cc.20577 

Hughes, Bryce E. "Coming out in STEM: Factors affecting retention of sexual minority STEM students." Science advances 4.3 (2018): eaao6373. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5851677/ 

Leyva, L. A., McNeill, R. T., Balmer, B R., Marshall, B. L., King, V. E., & Alley, D. (2022). Black queer students’ counter-stories of invisibility in undergraduate STEM as a white, cisheteropatriarchal space. American Educational Research Journal, 59(5), 863-904. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312221096455 

Maloy, Jeffrey, Monika B. Kwapisz, and Bryce E. Hughes. "Factors influencing retention of transgender and gender nonconforming students in undergraduate STEM majors." CBE—Life Sciences Education 21.1 (2022): ar13. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.21-05-0136

Reggiani, Marco, Jessica Dawn Gagnon, and Rebecca Jane Lunn. "LGBT+ academics’ and PhD students’ experiences of visibility in STEM: more than raising the rainbow flag." Higher Education (2023): 1-19. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-023-00993-2 

Richey, Christina R., et al. "Gender and sexual minorities in astronomy and planetary science face increased risks of harassment and assault." Bulletin of the american astronomical society 51.4 (2019): 0206. https://assets.pubpub.org/cg3fekxj/51575918676654.pdf 

Sansone, Dario, and Christopher S. Carpenter. "Turing’s children: Representation of sexual minorities in STEM." PloS one 15.11 (2020): e0241596. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241596 

Sansone, Dario. "LGBT students: New evidence on demographics and educational outcomes." Economics of Education Review 73 (2019): 101933. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775719302791

Stonewall’s University Report https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/lgbt_in_britain_universities_report.pdf

Yoder, Jeremy B., and Allison Mattheis. "Queer in STEM: Workplace experiences reported in a national survey of LGBTQA individuals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers." Journal of homosexuality 63.1 (2016): 1-27. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2015.1078632 

Annex 4:
Government datasets and reports

Previously compiled spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS55AL9A9ZZ_-HFnCypo_5DH08BHhk6Gx6tYAAYTPzc7uhHTEq_MkUo5vkRi9U8pL5AuVzQyPjeF03U/pubhtml 

US and UK censuses and data collection

UK ONS sexual orientation question addition to the English and Welsh census https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/questiondevelopment/sexualorientationquestiondevelopmentforcensus2021 

UK ONS gender identity question addition to the English and Welsh census https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/questiondevelopment/sexandgenderidentityquestiondevelopmentforcensus2021 

ONS topic consultation for incorporation of SOGI items on the English and Welsh Census https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765089/Census2021WhitePaper.pdf 

NRS sexual orientation question addition to the Scottish census https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/media/nlugzlqn/sexual_orientation_topic_report.pdf 

NRS gender identity question addition to the Scottish census see https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/media/rguhe4ol/sex_and_gender_identity_topic_report.pdf 

NRS topic consultation for incorporation of SOGI items on the Scottish Census https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/media/3w5b3fgi/topic_consultation.pdf 

NISRA incorporation of sexual orientation on the Northern Ireland Census https://www.nisra.gov.uk/sites/nisra.gov.uk/files/publications/sexual-orientation-topic-report.pdf 

NISRA’s findings on gender identity items and their rationale for not including gender identity on the Northern Ireland census https://www.nisra.gov.uk/sites/nisra.gov.uk/files/publications/Research%20on%20Measuring%20Gender%20Identity%20-%20Feb%202021.pdf 

NISRA’s topic consultation on SOGI items https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/2021-census/consultation/topic-consultation

UK HESA data collection including SOGI https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c21054/index 

American Community Survey https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs 

Census Bureau’s Household pulse survey https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html 

UKRI’s pilot of SOGI data collection https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/UKRI-071021-AddressingUnder-representationUpdate07Oct.pdf 

UKRI’s draft of their equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy https://www.ukri.org/publications/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-draft-for-consultation/ukri-equality-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-draft-for-consultation/ 

Glossary attached to the UKRI draft of their equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy that lists SOGI items as diversity/demographic metrics https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-glossary-of-edi-terms/ukri-glossary-of-edi-terms/ 

UK GEO National LGBT Survey https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report 

National Science Foundation’s report on underrepresented groups used as a basis for classification by other federal agencies.  https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321/report 

Listing of surveys conducted by the National Science Foundation https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys 

US Department of Education’s High School Longitudinal Survey see https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/index.asp 

Findings of the Office and Management and Budget’s SOGI data working group that was used as a basis for question format in the US Department of Education’s surveys. https://nces.ed.gov/FCSM/pdf/SOGI_Research_Agenda_Final_Report_20161020.pdf

https://nces.ed.gov/FCSM/pdf/buda5.pdf 

https://nces.ed.gov/FCSM/pdf/Evaluations_of_SOGI_Questions_20160923.pdf 

https://nces.ed.gov/FCSM/SOGI.asp 

US Department of Education’s Baccalaureate and Beyond Survey https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b/index.asp 

US Department of Education’s Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study  https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps/index.asp

NIH SGMRO Collated datasets on SOGI data collection in the US

https://dpcpsi.nih.gov/sgmro/measurement-and-data 

Government reports

Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity. A Report by the Subcommittee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Variations in Sex Characteristics (SOGI) Data Subcommittee on Equitable Data of the National Science and Technology Council. (2023) https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Federal-Evidence-Agenda-on-LGBTQI-Equity.pdf 

Inequality among LGB&T groups in the UK: a review of evidence. Government Equalities Office (2016). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inequality-among-lgbt-groups-in-the-uk-a-review-of-evidence 

Inquiry into equity in the STEM workforce. AAPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM; British Science Association (2021). https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=3d51130a-458b-4363-9b2b-d197afc8382a 

Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation (2021) https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/