Canadian Workplaces Are Still Falling Short For 2SLGBTQIA+ Employees

This is the fourth blog in our Bite-Sized But Impactful Data series. We collect a lot of powerful data at YMCA WorkWell and we believe that data is only meaningful if it's shared. While we publish our deep-dive Workplace Well-Being Report every year, this blog series shares one bite-sized and data-driven stories throughout the year. We want these stories to be short, quick reads that pique your interest more than answer all of your questions, so if you would ever like to go deeper and learn more about what we are seeing in our data, please contact us. We're always open to talk data with anyone and everyone.

As we close out June, it's important to reflect on another Pride Month under our belts - and what lies beyond it.

Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising - a pivotal moment in the fight for 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual) rights. It has grown into a movement to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, to advocate for equal rights and to take continued steps towards the eradication of identity-based discrimination, violence, and stigma.

And we have seen progress. This month, Ipsos released a report which highlighted that a strong majority of Canadians support 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and visibility. The report found that:

• 78% of Canadians believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally.
• 77% believe that lesbian, gay and bisexual Canadians should be protected from discrimination.
• 75% believe transgender Canadians should be protected from discrimination.

All three metrics have increased since 2024 and all three outpace global averages across 26 countries.

Those are all wins, right? A "strong majority" is often a notable win in any report.

But here's the thing.
There are two sides to every data story.

A strong majority might not feel like cause for celebration when 25% of people do not agree that you should be protected from discrimination. That is 1 in 4 people that you pass in the grocery store or sit beside you in a waiting room.

That is the other side of that progress. While support continues to rise in Canada on one side, hate crimes targeting 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are also rising on the other. It's a stark reminder that Pride's roots are in resistance and activism - not just rainbow logos - and this community continues to fight every day for basic human rights.

This is a sentiment I've seen multiple times this month and it communicates this point better than I ever could:

I will admit, I am writing this as a straight, white man. I don't have lived experience to speak for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and there are so many incredible advocates who can speak to theirs in a much more impactful way.

What I do have... is data. And it speaks volumes.

Over the last 12 months, our team at YMCA WorkWell has collected Insights data from tens of thousands of employees across Canada. In and amongst all of those responses, comprehensive demographic data was collected from over 13,000 of those respondents. Within that sample, 1,123 responses came from 2SLGBTQIA+ employees - about 9% overall.

This sample has given us a chance to dig deeper and compare how those 1,123 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and the 11,971 straight employees experience their work, their organizations, and the nuanced dynamics that make up organizational cultures.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the data points to how far we still have to go in supporting this community within the workplace.

A Clear Gap In Workplace Experiences

Our Employee Insights Survey measures the core outcomes of a healthy organizational culture. Do employees feel valued? Appropriately recognized? Do they feel a strong sense of community with their coworkers and feel like they can be themselves at work?

In Figure 1, we illustrate some of the most critical differences between 2SLGBTQIA+ and straight employees. Each section presents the percentage of respondents reporting healthy scores in each outcome, with grey bars representing straight employees and blue bars representing 2SLGBTQIA+ employees.

The data speaks for itself.

In plain language, what's the story here? 2SLGBTQIA+ employees are significantly less likely to feel healthy, to feel like a valued member of their organization, to feel appropriately recognized for the work they do, to feel a strong sense of community, to feel like they can be themselves at work, and to feel as though they belong at their organization.

Really consider those numbers. Only 1 in 2 feel like a valued member of their organization. Of the 1,123 2SLGBTQIA+ employees in our sample, only 561 of them feel adequately recognized for the work they do.

If that were your operations team, you would be ringing the alarm bells.

These metrics define what healthy work looks like. Our team at YMCA WorkWell would argue that you need to feel all five of them to truly experience healthy work - and yet, many 2SLGBTQIA+ employees don't feel a single one.

This is a clear signal that our workplaces are falling short in supporting this community - and we clearly see its implications in the data too.

When we zoom out to look at the impact on employees' well-being, the story doesn't get better.

Figure 2 provides the percentage of respondents reporting healthy well-being at work and at home in the last three months.

Only 37% of 2SLGBTQIA+ respondents reported healthy well-being scores, compared to 57% of straight respondents. That is barely 1 in 3.

And burnout? A full 34% of 2SLGBTQIA+ employees in our sample reported burnout "Often" or "Extremely Often" - compared to only 21% of straight employees. In other words, 2SLGBTQIA+ are 62% more likely to experience regular burnout - that isn't a coincidence.

These aren't abstract concerns. They are frank realities for an entire community of people.

The Quick Takeaway

For those who prefer plain language over charts and numbers, here are the key takeaways:

• Canadian workplaces are not adequately supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ employees.
• 2SLGBTQIA+ employees feel less valued, less recognized, less sense of community, and less able to be themselves at work.
• As a result, 2SLGBTQIA+ employees report significantly lower levels of well-being and higher levels of burnout at work.

The 2SLGBTQIA+ community deserves better.

And they are absolutely right - they deserve and need more than "love is love" and symbolic gestures. Acceptance is too low of a bar.

They deserve to feel valued, to feel like they belong in their workplace, and to feel like they can be themselves in the workplace.

These are the absolute basics of what it means to work in a safe, inclusive, and equitable organization. And right now, our data suggests that many workplaces in Canada aren’t delivering on that promise.

Where Can You Start?

So, where can you start? There are many great resources and directories created by people and organizations with more lived experience than me such as this "giant resource list for 2SLGBTQIA+ support in Canada", these "resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ business owners and allies", and this "guide for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees".

And instead of me providing my thoughts, I've crowd-sourced recommendations from some of the amazing 2SLGBTQIA+ people in my network on what type of support they hope to see from organizations. Here were their thoughts:

1. Advocacy needs to be year-round. It's demoralizing to see support suddenly decline at the end of June. Pride Month is a great opportunity to mobilize in support of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community - but support and advocacy is only performative if it stops when July starts.
2. 2SLGBTQIA+ Supports Need to be a Key Aspect of Your DEIB Strategy. 2SLGBTQIA+ needs still feel like an afterthought in too many DEIB strategies. These supports need to be more than symbolic gestures. Does your organization provide gender neutral and inclusive spaces? Do you have clear anti-discrimination policies that explicitly protect sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression? Does your EAP reflect diverse needs and affirm 2SLGBTQIA+ identities? Creating safe and affirming workplaces requires conscious and committed effort on the ground - not just on your social media.
3. Signage is Simple, But it Matters. Flags, bathroom signs, posters - supportive signage signals that 2SLGBTQIA+ people deserve respect in a space. They might be simple, but a flag or rainbow in a space can elicit a genuine sigh of relief and some comfort that someone in that space - even if not everyone - will see you and treat you just as they would anyone else.
4. Hire More 2SLGBTQIA+ People At All Levels. Regardless of your background, there is nothing like seeing that you are not alone in a space. It signals that you don't just have allies, but people with similar life experiences - and there are few things that signal an organization's commitment more than seeing your community and diverse lived experiences represented through all levels.
5. Actually Listen To Your 2SLGBTQIA+ Employees. Instead of assuming you understand the needs of your 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and how best to support them, actually ask them. Few things will provide perspective faster. If you have a culture where trust is still being built, an anonymous feedback channel can help foster a culture of safety and support the community's ability to provide genuine and actionable responses.
6. Don't Rely On 2SLGBTQIA+ Employees To Do All The Work For You. Too often, equity-deserving groups are asked to take on the full burden of educating, building action plans, and leading the work. Their input is critical - but expecting them to bear the full brunt of the work is a recipe for burning out the communities you're trying to support. Genuine culture change requires an all-hands approach - otherwise, it's bound to fall short.

As we mark the end of Pride Month, I'm choosing to quietly celebrate the progress - the "strong majority" of Canadians who support 2SLGBTQIA+ rights - but I’m also sitting with the reality that there is still so much more to do. And acknowledging that is a critical part of Pride, too.

I hope that when June rolls around next year, we can all say we've taken concrete actions to support the more than one million Canadians who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+.

That would be something to celebrate.