In January 2021, I started a Twitter thread with papers and reports relevant to the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people studying or working in STEM. I didn’t add analysis or commentary, it was just a quick way to share papers as I found them. Even though journal papers and society reports don’t give us a complete picture of what it is to be LGBTQIA+ in STEM—scholars and activists share their work through lots of mediums—they are important. They become The Literature; the first data to get cited in other research, in EDI strategies, and in policy documents. That thread no longer exists, so I wanted to share it here. Again, I’m sharing them without any contextualisation from me—just the title, a quote I thought was interesting or somewhat representative of the text, and a link to the source. It’s not an exhaustive reading list, but I hope it’s useful.
— Dr Shaun O’Boyle
Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM.
“more likely to experience career limitations, harassment, and professional devaluation…reported more frequent health difficulties and were more likely to intend to leave STEM”
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe0933
Coming out in STEM: Factors affecting retention of sexual minority STEM students.
“sexual minority students were 7% less likely to be retained in STEM compared to switching into a non-STEM program”
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aao6373
A Model of Queer STEM Identity in the Workplace.
“heteronormative assumptions frequently silence conversations about gender and sexuality in STEM workplaces”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2019.1610632?journalCode=wjhm20
Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2015.1078632
LGBT Climate in Physics: Building an Inclusive Community. (PDF)
“LGBT physicists have faced uneven protection and support from legislation and policies”
https://www.aps.org/programs/lgbt/upload/LGBTClimateinPhysicsReport.pdf
Exploring the workplace for LGBT+ physical scientists. A report by the Institute of Physics, Royal Astronomical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry.
https://www.iop.org/about/publications/exploring-the-workplace-for-lgbtplus-physical-scientists
Black LGBT Adults in the US. LGBT well-being at the intersection of race.
“Black LGBT (29%) and non-LGBT (17%) women were more likely to be diagnosed with depression than Black LGBT (21%) and non-LGBT (12%) men.”
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/black-lgbt-adults-in-the-us
A decade of decline: Grant funding for researchers with disabilities 2008 to 2018.
“The percentage of NIH grant applicants with PIs reporting a disability significantly declined from 1.9% in 2008, to 1.2% in 2018”
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228686
Queer in STEM Organizations: Workplace Disadvantages for LGBT Employees in STEM Related Federal Agencies.
“LGBT employees in STEM agencies report systematically more negative workplace experiences than their non-LGBT colleagues”
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/1/12/htm
Understanding the Lived Experiences of Gender Minority Students in Irish Third-Level Education.
“Inappropriate questions about respondents’ bodies and sexuality were the leading form of harassment”
http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/89697
LGBTQ Inequality in Engineering Education.
“There is little variation in the climate for LGBTQ students across the eight schools, suggesting that anti‐LGBTQ bias may be widespread in engineering education”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jee.20239
Queer world-making: a need for integrated intersectionality in science communication.
“There is a lack of work which considers queer people as communicators, publics, and stakeholders for science”
https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_2001_2021_C05
The impact of relationships on the experiences of racially minoritized LGBTQ+ faculty in higher education.
“These faculty are expected to exert additional labor in their research, teaching, and service”
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-15770-001
Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors.
“TGNC students (n = 117) continue in STEM majors at a rate ∼10% lower than their cisgender peers”
https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.21-05-0136
Nondisclosure of queer identities is associated with reduced scholarly publication rates.
“open expression of queer identities in the workplace promotes greater productivity”
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263728
LGBT+ physicists: Harassment, persistence, and uneven support
“Trans respondents experienced the most hostile climate, experiencing or observing exclusionary behavior at much higher rates than non-trans respondents.”
https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.010124
The Queer Variable
A collection of 40 interviews with LGBTQ+ people working or studying in STEM.
Workplace climate for LGBT+ physicists: A view from students and professional physicists
“LGBT+ inclusion…was the only factor which positively correlated to outness, and it significantly reduced consideration to leave.”
https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.010147
Increasing inclusion & competency in STEM: Understanding LGBTQ+ history, barriers, and heteronormativity
“In order to reduce barriers…we need to have advocacy for structural change and social inclusion rooted in historic context.”
https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/3745
Workplace Experiences of LGBTQIA+ Academics in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience
“A large portion of the sample exhibited moderately severe depression symptoms (37%) or potential [major depressive disorder] (19%).”
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/52psy
Best practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion during ecological fieldwork: Considering safety, cis/heteronormativity and structural barriers
“Trainees should not be required to find solutions”
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14339
Proud scientists
“In our efforts to elevate LGBTQIA+ in STEM, we must pay particular attention to elevate people of colour, queer and trans women, non-binary, neurodivergent and/or disabled folk in our community.”
Building a queer- and trans-inclusive microbiology conference
“Recognize that people with multiple, overlapping marginalized identities may face unique and magnified challenges”
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00433-23
Advancing LGBTQ+ People in STEM Careers
“Those who identify as LGBTQ+—and have power and capacity—need to “hold the door open” when they can”
LGBTQ@NASA and Beyond: Work Structure and Workplace Inequality among LGBTQ STEM Professionals
“LGBTQ professionals across STEM disciplines and work sectors who worked in dynamic project-based teams reported greater marginalization and stress, less professional respect, and less comfort being open to colleagues”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07308884221080938
LGBT + academics’ and PhD students’ experiences of visibility in STEM: more than raising the rainbow flag
“addressing LGBT + visibility should firstly be an institutional responsibility and not an individual burden”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-023-00993-2
Science communicators from marginalized backgrounds challenge STEM cultural norms to promote community belonging
“Scientists, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, are driving transformative change in STEM”
https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_2304_2024_A01
Queer individuals’ experiences in STEM learning and working environments
“Queer issues have been silenced in the past on the grounds of not addressing ‘such a personal and private’ aspect”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057267.2024.2313903#d1e1329
The rights of undergraduate queer and trans* students of color as STEM majors
“STEM education is a site of oppression for historically marginalized populations across intersections of social difference, including race, gender, and sexuality”https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00405841.2024.2389015#abstract