2. “Even in organisations with good policies, LGB social
workers experience heterocentric views and norms and
sometimes excluded from the types of small interactions
that build social capital.”
“Everybody in my team and some of my service users know
I am gay and I own it as mine to disclose as & when I need
to. The subtle experiences of homophobia are present -
people stereotype you as 'lovely' and suddenyl all gay
people are lovely.”
“My line manager loves working with gay men but told me '
I don't 'get' lesbians'. Like racism, sexism ageism etc
homophobia is present and needs to be discussed and
tackled head on.”
3. “We've had social workers in our office who have been hounded out by
attacks on the building because they were gay males.”
“I always encourage students not to discuss their sexuality as it forces
others who may not be comfortable to do so into self-disclosure. In my
area this really could be a personal safety issue for men. Females don't
tend to get the same response.
“Quite a few of the families I work with think I am in a lesbian
relationship as I use 'partner' to describe my relationship. They seem to
accept that I don't like discussing my personal life in any detail (again this
is safety reasons; I actually live in the area I work in). I am sure the
reaction would be different if I was a male. I also generally find that male
social workers face a high level of distrust and greater aggression from
families.”
“I can absolutely understand the direction not to disclose, and also
understand why this is shocking. However I can not see any justification
for allowing heterosexual workers to self-disclose when gay workers can
not.”
4. “As social workers we are not supposed to make
judgements on service users so why should this be the
case in the work place? As long as it's not impeding on
our work then I for one do not see why homophobia
should go back in to the closest.”
“If heterosexuals are allowed to go about there business
as usual without question. I feel that this should be the
same for those that are gay, this may be a naive way of
thinking, but we should be going forward and not
backwards, have we not learnt anything from using one’s
sexuality as a scapegoat?”
5. “It regrettable that homophobia, racism, prejudice,
oppressive and discriminatory practice and bullying is
rife in social work…though I would admit that this not
from every social worker.”
“I am speaking as a black male newly qualified social
worker. There are practitioners who make life hell for
others, and unfortunately not a lot is being done to
address this.”
6. “I believe that the decision to share personal details
i.e religion, sexuality, political affiliation etc with a
service user should be based on the professional
judgement of the worker and with the view of
maintaining therapeutic relationship with the
person.”
“These decisions may need to be discussed and
agreed in supervision if the worker is not
comfortable or unsure about what to do.”
7. “No one should be "declaring" their sexuality, whatever
it is. They are in a professional environment and their
sexuality should be off limits, just as much as their
political views, religion and what they had for tea last
night. Personal stuff stays at home!”
8. “Homophobia is a problem in my student cohort.
I'm a lesbian and have heard fellow students link
LGBT people as suffering from mental health
issues and say that if a service user identifies as
LGBT they should be treated with suspicion.”
“It absolutely horrified me and I just hope that by
the time we qualify they have lost those
thoughts.”
9. “I don't think you should disclose any personal
information to clients, whether is sexuality or
whether you have children, which is most
common in my experience of child protection
social work.
This kind of personal information is not requested
by most service users for care or concern, more to
use against you in one form or another. “
10. “While I don’t agree with social workers being instructed
not to disclose, I have rarely been involved with clients
where I have felt it would be beneficial to them for me to
do so. I’d suggest reflection on this should inform decision.
“I was once instructed by a well meaning manager not to
frequent local gay pub in case I was seen by clients!”
11. “If working with a 'gay' service user it would be helpful
to assess the possible impact of sexuality in order to
ensure that an anti-oppressive approach was assured by
the worker - but all of our interventions ought to be
from that ethical basis in any case.”
“Why should workers / managers have to say what their
sexuality is? Do we routinely ask Teachers, solicitors,
doctors etc? - No.”
12. “Any and all forms of discrimination should be
challenged and discussed. Why should it be
okay to ask anyone to hide their try self, but
still expect them to practice in an
antidiscriminatory way? Discrimination is
wrong at any level!”
13. “[Managers should be able to tell social
workers not to disclose] only in circumstances
to protect that worker from abuse from service
users, jeopardises the case progressing or
creates personal risk.”
“As a gay social worker, that is my business
and any questions raised by service users
would be dealt with by being boundaried and
refocusing my role etc ...I'm there to assess /
help service users , not to talk about me !”
14. “Personally I've not came across a situation where I have felt
the need to explain my sexual preferences to a service user but
if I had to I would only do it if it was safe and appropriate.”
“The manager in the case in question may have expressed
themselves in a less than ideal manner, using the term
'normal' can definitely be seen as clumsy if not prejudiced, but
I understand that they may have been concerned that some
people may find that their sexuality can be a barrier to them in
engaging with some people and could pose a risk to their
safety in extreme cases, as could many other factors of course.”
15. “I'm gay and don't feel comfortable discussing it with colleagues.
The office is very hetero-centric with comments and questions in
previous teams always asking "do you have a girlfriend" - never
"girlfriend or boyfriend" or partner.”
“The assumption continues to be that everyone is straight unless
they look or act what they perceive as stereotypically gay. The
culture of the discussions around the tea tray are quite exclusionary
- it's all about people's children and suchlike.”
“I do think many of my clients would react very negatively and its
rarely I feel disclosing would be of any particular benefit -
nevertheless I appreciate there is an argument that nothing will
change unless these views are challenged somehow.”
16. “The manager was completely wrong. In being open about sexuality there
is always a risk that service users will have prejudice against you.”
“However, I work with social workers who often face prejudice for being
black or asian, or even their class and have to deal with it. I don't shout
about my sexuality but do not believe in lying, so if asked I would not lie
about having a boyfriend when I have a girlfriend.”
“On the whole many service users may try to find a way to undermine you
to try make themselves feel better, but it's an important part of pro-social
modelling to show everyone that they should be comfortable with who
they are.”
“Prejudice about sexuality as with race etc can only be broken down when
people get to meet different people and realise it's not a big issue on the
scale of things.”
18. “I personally think it should be up to the social workers
judgement. I my self am a social work student and have
come to learn that social workers have to make
judgements in situations to work out how to handle it.”
“I think from a client point of view it would help them
to trust there social worker if the social is upfront when
asked questions like where their interests lie whether it
is man or woman that they prefer.”
“How can we be expected to help others if we cannot be
honest ourselves?”
19. “I don't think anyone should feel embarrassed about
their sexuality. It can only only be used against people
in an environment of prejudice and the best weapon
against this is an open commitment to the social work
values of equality. “
20. “We do not know the meaning of why clients may ask workers
what is their sexuality and what they would ascribe to this.”
“I agree right across the board workers should keep information to
themselves about such matters. In the same way, when families
ask child protection social workers if they have children - as they
often do in loaded situations? Social workers should not admit or
deny.”
“Those that do have children and admit this may not see what this
means for their colleagues who dont have children. It's another
debate, but along a similar vein.”
“It is simply often not appropriate to disclose personal information
and it is not about being asked to be in the closet about a social
workers sexuality. It is asking social workers to be cautious about
anything they share.”
21. “I would like to think that homophobia isn't a problem in social work
but I can think of some instances when service users may use this
against the worker.”
“Also I have to say, I have very rarely discussed my personal
sexuality with a service user so can't really see when this issue would
arise unless used in an empathic way.”
“I am carful about who I disclose to in term of clients group generally I
would not disclose unless the person demonstrates good equality
awareness, for example, by asking if I have male or female partner. I
think this type of respect deserves respect.”
“I would be very offended if my manger told me not to disclose. I
would expect them to support me, if I became subject to homophobia
from either professionals or the vulnerable clients and their families.”
22. “Homophobia does exist in Social Work
Racism exists in Social Work
Extreme right wing views exist in Social Work
Bullying exists
Sexism exists”
“Unfortunately not everyone who comes into
social work has a solid value base.”
“Perhaps more stringent probing social work
interviews ,when recruiting for the SW course
and when interviewing for posts.”
23. “This is surely a question about the difference between
advise and instruction? A manager might advise a
social worker of any or no sexual orientation to reflect
on the consequences of disclosing their sexual
preferences, this is part of managing the separation of
the personal and the professional.”
24. “Homophobia is completely at odds with social work
values. Any homophobia within social work must be
challenged. I teach on a social work degree and this is
not something that would be tolerated.”
“Students are encouraged to explore their values and
consider how they would challenge homophobia-
along with other forms of oppression and
discrimination- in practice.”
25. “As a 'profession' we should challenge any form of
prejudice. Unfortunately social work is no different
from society at large and various forms of prejudice are
not uncommon. The current economic situation
appears to be an opportunity for the worse sort of views
to see the light of day again.”
26. “I have been working in Social Work and am both transgender
and lesbian. I have had very few problems but there have been a
couple of occasions when I have not been able to continue
working with clients due to discrimination.”
“There are some services that I dread going to because the clients
whisper behind their hands as soon as I walk into the room. On
the whole there have not been problems, but I generally do not
disclose me sexual orientation, and have only on a couple of
occasions discussed my gender identity.”
“I am fortunate that I do pass well with relation to gender, so it is
not obvious that I am trans except sometimes on the telephone. I
try not to discuss my personal life, but sometimes have to say
that I have a partner, but tend not to use pronouns so that the
client does not know that my partner is female.”
27. “I have worked in several different agencies and job roles
- including working in HIV with gay men - and I have
never disclosed my sexuality to anyone even though I am
a lesbian. I feel that it is not anyone else's business who I
am, but I will disclose to colleagues if I feel I can trust
them!”
28. “As social workers we are not supposed to
make judgements on service users so why
should this be the case in the work place? As
long as it's not impeding on our work then I
for one do not see why homophobia should go
back in to the closest.”
29. “A Social Workers sexuality is a personal matter not to
be displayed,discussed nor discouraged. I believe a
Manager’s role is to support social workers and where,
when possible allocate cases with consideration of all
factors and this should include sexuality.”
30. “I am openly gay in my work place in a multi-disciplinary team and have
never suffered any negative prejudice.”
“However, due to the client that I work with being young offenders I
have made my own decision not to disclose. If they guess then that’s
an issue for them but I would never disclose it to them, but even then
its never been an issue that I have been made aware of. I think this is a
personal choice not a professional one.”
“Although your private business is 'your' business and I do not agree
with disclosing because of the sake of it (specially in care situations it
is not appropriate for workers to draw personal parallels with service
users to 'make them feel better'), for people that are openly gay I feel
there are a lot of undisclosed homophobia particularly from service
users, parents and professionals.”
31. “It is the competence in social work that matters and
what it stands for. We are all human beings and life is
characterised by differences. Homophobics should
get over it.”
