Sexual orientation discrimination: exploring the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual employees in Turkey

This article explores workplace sexual orientation discrimination in the context of Turkey, a developing country displaying a unique set of gendered intersectionalities permeating the employment sphere. Using a multifarious theoretical backdrop steeped in a combinatorial analytical approach sustained by post-structural constructs, queer theory and relational perspectives, this study locates homophobic practices at work in terms of their variegated determinants, instantiations and possibilities for transformation. Open-ended, unstructured, probing interviews support the exploratory effort in gaining an authentic sense of meaning as evidenced by personal experience, and conditioned by contextual detail in the working lives of 20 lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. This allows for the emergence of an account of how sexual orientation discrimination is diffused through a plethora of work environments in Turkey and at what particular ideational levels of signification emergent processes may combat such discriminatory practices.