Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual School Counselors: What Influences Their Decision-Making Regarding Coming Out At Work

Coming out in the education workplace creates a unique set of challenges for the Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual (LGB) individual. Harbeck (1997) describes the struggle in public education with regard to homosexuality as one of the most publicly volatile and personally threatening debates in our national history (p.1 ). The principal mission of schools has traditionally been to pass on societal values to a younger generation and educators have been hired to serve as role models for such values as well as for their teaching competencies. Depending on the community environment related to issues of sexual orientation, if an educator were to publicly reveal her/his sexual orientation it may be considered deviating from the societal norms that the institution wants to reinforce. As a result, the educator\u27s choice to come out in the workplace is complicated by the fear of possible job loss, harassment, loss of credibility, and discriminatory practices ranging from subtle to overt (Griffin, 1992; Jennings, 2005; Woods & Harbeck, 1992)..