LGBTQIA+ inclusive workplace climate in Portugal: Sexual minorities employees’ perspectives

Background: Despite growing efforts to promote workplace diversity, many LGBTQIA+ employees still face discrimination, exclusion, and challenges in fully expressing their identities at work. The literature indicates that perceptions of inclusive organizational climate are closely linked to LGBTQIA+ employees’ well-being, job satisfaction, and engagement. Objective: To examine perceptions of LGBTQIA+ inclusive organizational climate among cisgender sexual minority workers in Portugal, and to test their associations with self-reported workplace discrimination. Method: Seventy-nine cisgender, non-heterosexual participants (Mage 31.59, SD = 10.13) completed a questionnaire assessing LGBT–inclusive workplace climate and a sociodemographic questionnaire in a cross-sectional online survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank-order correlations, Mann–Whitney U tests, hierarchical regression, and regression-based moderation analyses. Results: Respondents indicated that their organizations often had formal LGBTQIA+ inclusion policies, but these were often perceived as only partially or inconsistently implemented. Participants reported experiences of discrimination, with women perceiving less discrimination and indicating greater openness about their identities. Perceived supervisor and coworker support were strongly associated with a less discriminatory climate, and identity disclosure/outness was positively associated with perceptions of an inclusive workplace climate. The moderation analysis indicated that the interaction between supervisor support and disclosure was not significant; instead, supervisor support predicted lower discrimination consistently across all levels of disclosure. Conclusions: These findings underscore the critical role of both organizational culture and support mechanisms in fostering an inclusive climate for LGBTQIA+ individuals in the workplace.