Despite legal and social advances in recent years, 42% of LGBTI+ people avoid talking about their private lives at work because they are not openly LGBTI+ (UGT, 2023). This is a worrying reality: Many LGBTI+ people continue to hide an essential part of their identity for fear of discrimination, harassment or lack of recognition. This invisibilisation has a direct impact on emotional well-being, mental health and professional development.

Visibility matters. It generates positive references, breaks stigmas and shows that it is possible to be openly LGBTI+ and have a successful career in the world of research. But visibility cannot be an individual requirement: it must be a real and safe option, guaranteed by inclusive work environments that support and recognise diversity. Three out of ten LGBTI+ people claim to have been subjected to some kind of offensive comment at work (UGT, 2023).

Creating these environments involves implementing specific measures: training and awareness-raising for all staff, specific anti-discrimination protocols, egalitarian leave, bias-free selection and promotion processes, and inclusive communication that reflects the diversity of the people who make science possible.

Because science is made by people. And when LGBTI+ people can work and lead freely, research is enriched with a more plural, fair and representative view of society.

At CERCA centres, we do science with diversity. We are committed to ensuring LGTBIphobia-free working environments, where everyone can develop themselves to the fullest and be who they are.

Law 11/2014, of 10 October, to guarantee the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons and to eradicate homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, defines harassment due to reasons of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (LGBTIphobic harassment) as any behaviour based on a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression that has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity or physical or mental integrity of a person or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, offensive or uncomfortable environment for that person. Some concepts to bear in mind are:

• Sexual orientation: a person’s physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction towards other people. Sexual orientation can be heterosexual, where physical, romantic and emotional attraction is felt only towards people of the opposite sex; homosexual, where physical, romantic or emotional attraction is felt only towards people of the same sex; or bisexual, where physical, romantic or emotional attraction is felt towards people of different sexes, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, to the same degree or with the same intensity.
• Gender identity: a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth.
• Gender expression: how a person outwardly presents their gender to the world.
• Trans person: a person with a gender identity that does not correspond to the person’s designated sex at birth.

Examples of behaviours that constitute LGBTphobic harassment:

• Ridiculing and belittling the capacities, abilities, skills and intellectual potential of LGBTQ people. Repeatedly using LGBTphobic humour.
• Repeatedly using offensive forms of address or referring to a person on the basis of their sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual preference.
• Ignoring their contributions, comments or actions (excluding, devaluing).
• Making fun of someone with the intention to belittle. Repeatedly interrupting a person on the basis of their gender identity, gender expression or sexual preference.
• Downplaying the work done; professionally discrediting people who are LGBTQ or who do not represent normative gender roles.
• Assigning or asking a person to do tasks based on LGBTphobic prejudices.
• Refusing to name or recognise a trans person by the gender and name they identify with.

Law 4/2023, of 28 February, for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGBTQ people, establishes in its Article 15.1 the obligation for companies with more than 50 workers to have a planned set of measures and resources to achieve the real and effective equality of LGBTQ people.

Royal Decree (RD) 1026/2024, of 8 October, regulates this obligation and details the steps that must be taken in order to draw up this set of measures planned in an LGBTQ plan and the content this plan should have.

The areas that RD 1026/2024 asks LGBTQ plans to define and develop are explained below. Examples have been added so that each research centre can implement the measures in the different areas within the context of its specific centre.

• Equal treatment and non-discrimination clauses: Collective agreements should include clauses guaranteeing equality and preventing any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression (e.g. an explicit commitment against LGBTIphobic harassment, awareness-raising actions and safe and confidential reporting mechanisms).
• Equal access to employment: Inclusive and unbiased selection processes need to be put in place to ensure equal opportunities, especially for transgender people (e.g. training for recruiters, prohibition of invasive questions or discriminatory medical tests, inclusive clauses in contracts with external agencies).

• Professional categorisation and promotion: Criteria for promotion and categorisation must be objective and non-discriminatory (e.g. analysis of processes to detect bias, respect for the identity of trans people in internal documents, prohibition of questions or medical tests related to sexual identity).
• Training and awareness-raising: Mandatory training for all staff on LGBTI+diversity and rights (e.g. learning modules on inclusive language, the current legal framework, internal protocols and knowledge of the LGBTI+community).
• Inclusive work environments: Safe and diverse spaces, free of LGBTIphobia (e.g. review of facilities such as toilets, specific protocol for trans people, inclusive language and promotion of diversity in the workforce).
• Social leave and benefits: All persons should have equal access to leave and benefits, recognising family diversity (e.g. access without discrimination to insurance, canteens or maternity/paternity leave).
• Disciplinary regime: Any act of discrimination or harassment on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (e.g. clear-cut penalties in case of LGBTIphobic behaviour). The procedure for reporting LGBTIrelated situations will be laid out clearly in a specific protocol against LGBTIphobic harassment or by incorporating LGBTQ measures into the centre’s sexual and gender-based harassment protocol.