And things for allies!
Reading
- Scientific American: What's It Like to Be Queer in STEM?
- Wired: Opinion Piece- Trans Researchers Are Struggling To Stay In Science. That Has To Change
- Science Magazine: Shattering the glass closet
- Science Magazine: Closeted discoverers- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender scientists
- GLAAD 2018 Accelerating Acceptance Report
- New York Times: Why is science so straight?
- Science News for Students: Proud to be different in STEM
Why you should care about your LGBTQ+ peers in science:
- A 2013 survey of STEM workers found that more than 40% of LGBTQ+ identified respondents working in STEM fields are not out to their colleagues. Yoder et al. 2016
- A 2018 study found that undergraduate sexual minority students were 7% less likely to be retained in STEM compared to switching into a non-STEM program, and 14% less likely to stay in a STEM major if they have had a research experience (typically associated with retention in STEM the pipeline).Hughes 2018
- A 2014 study of STEM faculty at universities found that 69.2% of ‘out’ faculty members felt uncomfortable in their university department, and that those who were out were 7.2 times more likely to experience exclusionary behavior by colleagues. Patridge et al. 2013
- A study of LGBT professionals published in 2019 found that “heteronormative assumptions frequently silence conversations about gender and sexuality in STEM workplaces and result in complicated negotiations of self for queer professionals.” Mattheis et al. 2019
LGBT+ Inclusivity in Physics and Astronomy: A Best Practices Guide
"We present the second edition of a Best Practices Guide for academic departments and other institutions striving to create more inclusive environments for physicists and astronomers in the LGBT+ community. Our recommendations incorporate new research since the original, 2014 edition, and are designed for anyone who wishes to become aware of -- and help mitigate -- the extra burdens that face members of the LGBT+ community in the physical sciences."
Astro Outlist
The outlist first went live in 1998. The American astronomers' LGBTQIA+ community first started to network together using an email distribution list that was formed in November 1992 as a result of efforts by four astronomy graduate students at the time. People then started organizing and getting together at the January 1993 American Astronomical Society (AAS) Meeting in Phoenix and the June 1993 AAS Meeting in Berkeley. The group continued to grow thanks to announcements in various newsgroups and the AAS newsletter. In 1998, the idea for an outlist webpage was born.