In the United States, an increasing number of people have come to express support for sexual minorities in recent decades, and more employers have implemented policies that protect sexual minority workers’ rights. Yet, heteronormativity remains in many workplaces. Considering this ambivalent social context, we examined the extent to which sexual minorities today see their workplaces as accepting and how they develop such a perception. We used a symbolic interaction framework to analyze data from in-depth interviews with 50 sexual minority young adults. The analysis revealed a general tendency among respondents to describe their workplaces as accepting. They used several strategies to feel accepted, including interpreting colleagues’ behaviors positively, creating dramatic narratives of key events, drawing on existing knowledge about the industry, and overlooking potential microaggressions. We use these results to discuss how minority individuals derive a sense of acceptance in contemporary social institutions, which emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion but show signs of persistent inequality.

中文翻译：

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多元化和包容时代的性少数年轻人群体的工作场所接受能力建设

在美国，近几十年来，越来越多的人表示支持性少数群体，并且越来越多的雇主已经实施了保护性少数群体工人权利的政策。但是，异规范仍然存在于许多工作场所。考虑到这种矛盾的社会背景，我们研究了当今性少数群体在多大程度上认为其工作场所可以接受，以及他们如何发展这种观念。我们使用了一个符号交互框架来分析来自对50个性少数年轻人的深入访谈中的数据。分析显示受访者普遍倾向于将其工作场所描述为接受。他们使用了多种策略来使自己感到被接受，包括积极地解释同事的行为，创建关键事件的生动叙事，利用有关该行业的现有知识，并忽略潜在的微攻击。我们使用这些结果来讨论少数族裔个体如何在当代社会制度中获得接纳感，强调了多样性和包容性的重要性，但显示出持续不平等的迹象。