Pride Month is celebrated in June. This month is dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community, celebrating their history, advocating for equality across various spaces, and spotlighting the many voices and issues that shape queer experiences. During this month, inclusion becomes a hot topic as brands and companies often loudly spearhead conversations of support, demonstrating allyship with rainbow campaigns and flags. But this inclusion is not just some once-in-a-year project. To create safe spaces for queer communities, the acceptance and support should extend throughout the year. Without genuine support that is not tethered to a month, all the talks of inclusivity during June are performative, rainbow washing at best.
This is especially applicable in workplaces, as work takes up the lion’s share of a person’s daily life, making these spaces fundamental to one’s wellbeing. If a queer person feels like they cannot be their true selves, it may take a significant toll on their mental wellness.
HT Lifestyle reached out to experts to understand how a queer person’s mental wellness is affected when they don’t feel supported at the workplace, along with practical strategies to create more inclusive and affirming spaces at work.
Mental impact of hiding true identity at workplace
Work is already all-consuming, demanding concentration and persistence to chase back-to-back deadlines. Add to that the burden of suppressing one’s queer identity in a non-inclusive workspace, damaging mental wellbeing.
Dr Arti Anand, Senior Consultant Psychologist, Institute of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, shared how any overt or covert form of discrimination may affect their mental wellbeing.
Explaining how mental wellbeing takes a hit, she said, “Pride Month serves as a reminder that inclusivity is not just a social value, it’s a workplace necessity. Queer employees often face subtle or overt forms of exclusion, discrimination, or erasure in professional environments. When queer employees feel excluded or unsafe, it directly affects their mental health, leading to increased stress, anxiety, and low self-worth.”
Moreover, the consequences aren’t just personal for job satisfaction; they also affect the company, as employee productivity begins to decline. Demonstrating how companies suffer when inclusion is missing, she added, “The emotional burden can cause a significant drop in motivation, creativity, confidence, and overall performance. Inclusion is not merely about representation; it’s about dignity, equity, and belonging. When queer individuals feel valued and visible, it leads to higher engagement, job satisfaction, and retention. It also signals to clients, partners, and future hires that the organisation upholds human rights and integrity.”
Consequences of performative inclusivity: Queer tokenism and imposter syndrome
Often, with so much showbiz on the surface, employees’ feelings and identities are reduced to symbols, leveraged more for the company’s diversity optics than for genuine inclusion.
Dr Arti said, “One of the more subtle but harmful outcomes of performative inclusion is tokenism, where queer employees are hired or highlighted only to tick the ‘diversity’ box, not because their skills, talents, and potential are genuinely valued. This creates a dangerous internal dialogue- ‘Am I here because I deserve it, or because they needed an LGBTQ+ face on the team?’ This experience can lead to impostor syndrome, where the individual constantly doubts their own worth and feels like a ‘fraud.’ The feeling is intensified when they’re singled out to represent the entire queer community without adequate support or when they’re excluded from decision making roles despite being publicly celebrated. Tokenism also creates pressure to conform or overperform, just to prove that they belong, sometimes resulting in burnout.”
Strategies for a more inclusive workplace
Companies may be at their loudest in June, be the best cheerleaders for queer community, but in reality, what they do for the remaining eleven months actually defines their true commitment to this inclusion they preach about in June.
Shruti Swaroop, Founder of Embrace Consulting and Co-Founder of International Inclusion Alliance, shared with HT Lifestyle the subtle yet harmful practices that can damage inclusivity.
Shruti said, “Many of these harmful practices are subtle but deeply damaging. There are many examples. For instance, the absence of a clear and inclusive policy leaves the community exposed and undervalued. The Human Rights Campaign (2022) reports that 46% of LGBTQIA+ employees continue to be closeted while at work. Performative allyship, pride-themed celebrations without a long-term commitment, result in mistrust. Moreover, microaggressions and misgendering compel the LGBTQIA+ community to have to ‘cover’ their authentic selves in order to exist. Similarly, restricted access to mentorship and leadership excludes the community’s voices from decision-making and prevents professional growth.”
Here are five broad strategies, as shared by Shruti, to help make the workplace a safer and more inclusive space for employees:
- Adopt an inclusive policy and enforce it through secure, confidential reporting and redressal mechanisms.
- Provide LGBTQIA+ lived experience-appropriate benefits, such as robust mental health care and gender-affirming therapies.
- Integrate inclusive practices into the daily culture, such as pronoun sharing as default, use of gender-neutral language, and embracing a respectful, adaptive dress code.
- Provide mandatory DEI training that addresses unconscious bias, develops allyship, and prepares leaders to create inclusive spaces.
- Develop visibility and representation through LGBTQIA+ employees’ networks, leadership development, and authentic storytelling.
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Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
