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TRANSCRIPT:
Since leaving their last full-time job five years ago, Ezra says they've been afraid to enter another workplace.
Ezra is non-binary and says their last job was both uncomfortable and unsafe.
Faced with frequent misgendering, they say work at the call centre already felt unwelcoming.
Then one day, when Ezra wore a necklace to work, things got worse.
"I was, you know, answering calls, and I was on the call to a client at the time, I remember, and this guy, he, he wasn't from my department, but we were on the same floor, and he came up behind me, and he just pulled at my choker, and I was just like... I kind of just froze, and I was like: 'Did that really just happen?' "
After speaking to a co-worker and raising it with their manager, Ezra says it soon became clear that the harassment wasn't being taken seriously.
"I think I cried in the bathroom that day and when I got home as well. But she said she'd bring it up to his manager. Then it got taken to the big manager, and they spoke to him, but nothing really came of it. I didn't feel like I was well-supported or safe in the workplace. I had a lot of anxiety and was struggling with anxiety attacks due to that. They wanted me to come back into work. I was trying to ask if I can go to a different floor or, like, area to him or to be transferred to a different department, and they just refused it. They were like, 'No.' Um, and I ended up quitting. I mean, my mental health wasn't doing great anyway while working there, but I did end up leaving that job, and I haven't, I haven't worked full time since working at that bank."
It's been just over 50 years since South Australia became the first Australian state to decriminalise male homosexuality.
It's been almost a decade since Australians voted in favour of same-sex marriage laws.
Represented in politics, pop culture and even professional sport, it might seem like the push for greater LGBTIQ+ inclusion has done what it set out to do.
But that isn't the case.
Recent data from Diversity Council Australia shows workplace discrimination against queer and gender diverse employees is increasing.
"It doesn't surprise me. We know that discrimination has always been a huge problem for our communities. It can destroy lives, and of course, it's terrible for employers as well, in terms of the impacts on staff wellbeing, workplace health and safety, and financial impact as well."
Heather Corkhill is the Legal Director of Equality Australia.
She says a rise in hate speech in Australia more broadly is exacerbating the issue.
"One of the problems, of course, is that there is an increasing issue of escalating hate speech against our communities. And of course, workers are also people with lives outside of work too, and can be influenced by disinformation, negative media and social media about our communities too."
In a recent survey of 3,000 workers across Australia, the research found that almost half of LGBTIQ+ workers had experienced workplace discrimination and / or harassment in the past year.
Marking a 24 per cent increase since the 2024 survey, the Diversity Council says the findings suggest not enough has been done to prevent this behaviour.
Charlie Hamra is the President of Pride in Law South Australia.
He says while exclusion in the workplace can often be a result of othering and a lack of understanding, it can also be more overt.
"I'm aware of a situation where a trans lawyer has been deadnamed* in a courtroom by a judge, and so things can be really that overt in terms of, you know, you come to work and being deadnamed. But there can also be the kinds of, sort of microaggressions, assumptions being made about a person's sexuality, or gender, just each of those little things which can add up on a day-to-day basis. You know, people assuming the gender of one's partner, and so on. Or even going so far as to sort of make inappropriate sexual comments or inappropriate jokes, which are sexual harassment, but which are sort of laughed off as being a bit of a joke."
Diversity Council Australia says this isn't about isolated incidents in the workplace, it's persistent exclusion.
Ahead of recent Hate Speech legislation passed following the Bondi terror attack, some rights groups called on the government to include stronger protections against LGBTIQ+ discrimination.
Heather Corkhill says the community has been left out of legislation that could make a real difference.
"At the moment, there's a requirement that employers are required to actively prevent sex discrimination, harassment, before it occurs. But these reforms left us out, much like the recent hate crime reforms did as well, and LGBTIQ+ people deserve the same protection from hate speech and discrimination. We think that a positive duty to eliminate discrimination would improve workplace culture and not just respond after the damage is done."
The Council says periods of heightened social polarisation around identity can create conditions where people feel more emboldened to show prejudice at work.
With the rising prominence of neo-Nazi groups in Australia and laws undoing or limiting gender-affirming care for young people in parts of the country, discriminatory language and negative media attention on the community can normalise discrimination.
Whether intentional or not, workplace discrimination creates environments where more serious harms can occur.
Charlie Hamra says the current processes in place mean such incidents often go unreported.
"We've got these huge numbers of LGBTQIA+ people experiencing discrimination or harassment at work and that's unsurprising to us. You know, we're hearing about that at the moment on the ground. And what I'll say is that while we've got this, we might have this protection sort of on its face, the nature of the way that the process is means that people aren't making complaints and so over the course of a five-year period, we only had 39 complaints to the Equal Opportunity Commission in South Australia."
To address this, rights groups say there needs to be more investment in dedicated legal services for LGBTIQ+ employees.
"Because if you're a LGBTQI+ person who's being discriminated against in the workplace, it would make all the difference to be able to go to a service that is staffed and designed by LGBTQI+ people, a legal service, to be able to go to them for legal assistance in navigating the anti-discrimination framework."
In addition, experts say employers can go beyond symbolic gestures of inclusion by forming Pride Committees at work, providing training about discrimination and making clear to employees that discrimination in any form won't be accepted.
A full report on the broader state of inclusion in the Australian workforce the past year is due out later this month.
These days, Ezra is a writer and does advocacy work.
They say the ability to be themselves means they can put their energy back into their work.
"Well, a combination of things really, like having, having a support network around me, you know, utilising my support workers that I have due to psychosocial disability, but also being now in an environment where I do feel like I belong, and it's safe, and I can be myself. Because I feel like being able to be myself in the workspace and not having to consciously, like, hide that and put the mental energy into that means that I can put the energy into work."
