Identity of the rainbow population

The largest group in the sexual identity categories is ‘gay or lesbian’ with 621 respondents. 260 respondents identified as bisexual.

Combined, 87 respondents identify as either gender diverse or transgender. Ten respondents identify as intersex. To ensure the confidentiality of the respondents who are intersex some data has been suppressed in the following findings.

“because the level of acceptance for LGBTQIA+ intersects with race, culture and gender there will be queer people who are more or less comfortable ... there are different impacts for different generations and role types”

There were respondents from all age groups. The highest proportion of respondents were 25 to 34 year olds at 37.7%. This is a higher proportion than the 23.1% that this age group makes up in the overall public service workforce. The lowest proportion of responses were received by those aged 65 years and over at 1.7%. This age group makes up 4.1% of the total public sector workforce.

95.6% of respondents answered this question. Some people identified with more than one ethnicity. 93.1% of respondents identified as European and 12.1% identified as Māori. This compares to 67.3% and 15.5% respectively of the total public service workforce. The ethnic group with the lowest number of respondents was the Middle Eastern Latin American and African group (MELAA) at 1.6%. This compares with 1.5% of the public service workforce. The ethnicity breakdown was calculated by dividing the number of people who identify as a particular ethnic group by the total number of people who provided an ethnicity response to this question.

13.4% of respondents were managers compared with 11.7% of the total public service workforce. 64.4% of respondents were professionals compared with 48.9% of the total public service workforce. 22.2% were in non-professional roles compared with 39.4% of the public service workforce.

WeCount 2019 queried if respondents were gendered correctly at work, as in, did their colleagues use their correct name and pronouns. Nearly a quarter of the responses to this question said that nobody at their work got this right. Just over half said that all or most of their colleagues did get it right. Some people relayed experiences where work colleagues often made assumptions based on appearances and their hetero-normative beliefs. These assumptions can be difficult to correct. Having the correct pronoun and name used can indicate safety and belonging. Deliberate misgendering, incorrect name use and micro-aggressions veiled as humour create a very real sense of not having one’s whole self being included and/or that that self is of lesser value than another person.

Assumptions can create a sense of being invisible. Challenging assumptions requires ongoing mental energy, the burden of which must be shared by all people. WeCount 2019 told us that colleagues, managers and others getting pronouns and names right matters in the workplace.

“Inclusive, caring and supportive work colleagues enable me to be open about my identity.”