Comments submitted to a Community Care online poll

“Even in organisations with good policies, LGB social workers experience heterocentric views and norms and sometimes excluded from the types of small interactions that build social capital.”

“Everybody in my team and some of my service users know I am gay and I own it as mine to disclose as & when I need to. The subtle experiences of homophobia are present - people stereotype you as 'lovely' and suddenyl all gay people are lovely.”

“My line manager loves working with gay men but told me ' I don't 'get' lesbians'. Like racism, sexism ageism etc homophobia is present and needs to be discussed and tackled head on.”

“I can absolutely understand the direction not to disclose, and also understand why this is shocking. However I can not see any justification for allowing heterosexual workers to self-disclose when gay workers can not.”

“We've had social workers in our office who have been hounded out by attacks on the building because they were gay males.”

“I always encourage students not to discuss their sexuality as it forces others who may not be comfortable to do so into self-disclosure. In my area this really could be a personal safety issue for men. Females don't tend to get the same response.

“Quite a few of the families I work with think I am in a lesbian relationship as I use 'partner' to describe my relationship. They seem to accept that I don't like discussing my personal life in any detail (again this is safety reasons; I actually live in the area I work in). I am sure the reaction would be different if I was a male. I also generally find that male social workers face a high level of distrust and greater aggression from families.”

“As social workers we are not supposed to make judgements on service users so why should this be the case in the work place? As long as it's not impeding on our work then I for one do not see why homophobia should go back in to the closest.”

“If heterosexuals are allowed to go about there business as usual without question. I feel that this should be the same for those that are gay, this may be a naive way of thinking, but we should be going forward and not backwards, have we not learnt anything from using one’s sexuality as a scapegoat?”

“It regrettable that homophobia, racism, prejudice, oppressive and discriminatory practice and bullying is rife in social work…though I would admit that this not from every social worker.”

“I am speaking as a black male newly qualified social worker. There are practitioners who make life hell for others, and unfortunately not a lot is being done to address this.”

“I believe that the decision to share personal details i.e religion, sexuality, political affiliation etc with a service user should be based on the professional judgement of the worker and with the view of maintaining therapeutic relationship with the person.”

“These decisions may need to be discussed and agreed in supervision if the worker is not comfortable or unsure about what to do.”

“No one should be "declaring" their sexuality, whatever it is. They are in a professional environment and their sexuality should be off limits, just as much as their political views, religion and what they had for tea last night. Personal stuff stays at home!”

“Homophobia is a problem in my student cohort. I'm a lesbian and have heard fellow students link LGBT people as suffering from mental health issues and say that if a service user identifies as LGBT they should be treated with suspicion.”

“It absolutely horrified me and I just hope that by the time we qualify they have lost those thoughts.”

“I don't think you should disclose any personal information to clients, whether is sexuality or whether you have children, which is most common in my experience of child protection social work.

This kind of personal information is not requested by most service users for care or concern, more to use against you in one form or another. “

“While I don’t agree with social workers being instructed not to disclose, I have rarely been involved with clients where I have felt it would be beneficial to them for me to do so. I’d suggest reflection on this should inform decision.

“I was once instructed by a well meaning manager not to frequent local gay pub in case I was seen by clients!”

“If working with a 'gay' service user it would be helpful to assess the possible impact of sexuality in order to ensure that an anti-oppressive approach was assured by the worker - but all of our interventions ought to be from that ethical basis in any case.”

“Why should workers / managers have to say what their sexuality is? Do we routinely ask Teachers, solicitors, doctors etc? - No.”

“Any and all forms of discrimination should be challenged and discussed. Why should it be okay to ask anyone to hide their try self, but still expect them to practice in an antidiscriminatory way? Discrimination is wrong at any level!”

“[Managers should be able to tell social workers not to disclose] only in circumstances to protect that worker from abuse from service users, jeopardises the case progressing or creates personal risk.”

“As a gay social worker, that is my business and any questions raised by service users would be dealt with by being boundaried and refocusing my role etc ...I'm there to assess / help service users , not to talk about me !”

“Personally I've not came across a situation where I have felt the need to explain my sexual preferences to a service user but if I had to I would only do it if it was safe and appropriate.” “The manager in the case in question may have expressed themselves in a less than ideal manner, using the term 'normal' can definitely be seen as clumsy if not prejudiced, but I understand that they may have been concerned that some people may find that their sexuality can be a barrier to them in engaging with some people and could pose a risk to their safety in extreme cases, as could many other factors of course.”

“I'm gay and don't feel comfortable discussing it with colleagues. The office is very hetero-centric with comments and questions in previous teams always asking "do you have a girlfriend" - never "girlfriend or boyfriend" or partner.”

“The assumption continues to be that everyone is straight unless they look or act what they perceive as stereotypically gay. The culture of the discussions around the tea tray are quite exclusionary - it's all about people's children and suchlike.”

“I do think many of my clients would react very negatively and its rarely I feel disclosing would be of any particular benefit - nevertheless I appreciate there is an argument that nothing will change unless these views are challenged somehow.”

“The manager was completely wrong. In being open about sexuality there is always a risk that service users will have prejudice against you.”

“However, I work with social workers who often face prejudice for being black or asian, or even their class and have to deal with it. I don't shout about my sexuality but do not believe in lying, so if asked I would not lie about having a boyfriend when I have a girlfriend.”

“On the whole many service users may try to find a way to undermine you to try make themselves feel better, but it's an important part of pro-social modelling to show everyone that they should be comfortable with who they are.”

“Prejudice about sexuality as with race etc can only be broken down when people get to meet different people and realise it's not a big issue on the scale of things.”

“All social workers should be told not to disclose their sexuality.”

“I personally think it should be up to the social workers judgement. I my self am a social work student and have come to learn that social workers have to make judgements in situations to work out how to handle it.”

“I think from a client point of view it would help them to trust there social worker if the social is upfront when asked questions like where their interests lie whether it is man or woman that they prefer.”

“How can we be expected to help others if we cannot be honest ourselves?”

“I don't think anyone should feel embarrassed about their sexuality. It can only only be used against people in an environment of prejudice and the best weapon against this is an open commitment to the social work values of equality. “

“We do not know the meaning of why clients may ask workers what is their sexuality and what they would ascribe to this.”

“I agree right across the board workers should keep information to themselves about such matters. In the same way, when families ask child protection social workers if they have children - as they often do in loaded situations? Social workers should not admit or deny.”

“Those that do have children and admit this may not see what this means for their colleagues who dont have children. It's another debate, but along a similar vein.”

“It is simply often not appropriate to disclose personal information and it is not about being asked to be in the closet about a social workers sexuality. It is asking social workers to be cautious about anything they share.”

“I would like to think that homophobia isn't a problem in social work but I can think of some instances when service users may use this against the worker.”

“Also I have to say, I have very rarely discussed my personal sexuality with a service user so can't really see when this issue would arise unless used in an empathic way.” “I am carful about who I disclose to in term of clients group generally I would not disclose unless the person demonstrates good equality awareness, for example, by asking if I have male or female partner. I think this type of respect deserves respect.”

“I would be very offended if my manger told me not to disclose. I would expect them to support me, if I became subject to homophobia from either professionals or the vulnerable clients and their families.”

“Homophobia does exist in Social WorkRacism exists in Social WorkExtreme right wing views exist in Social WorkBullying existsSexism exists”

“Unfortunately not everyone who comes into social work has a solid value base.”

“Perhaps more stringent probing social work interviews ,when recruiting for the SW course and when interviewing for posts.”

“This is surely a question about the difference between advise and instruction? A manager might advise a social worker of any or no sexual orientation to reflect on the consequences of disclosing their sexual preferences, this is part of managing the separation of the personal and the professional.”

“Homophobia is completely at odds with social work values. Any homophobia within social work must be challenged. I teach on a social work degree and this is not something that would be tolerated.”

“Students are encouraged to explore their values and consider how they would challenge homophobia-along with other forms of oppression and discrimination- in practice.”

“As a 'profession' we should challenge any form of prejudice. Unfortunately social work is no different from society at large and various forms of prejudice are not uncommon. The current economic situation appears to be an opportunity for the worse sort of views to see the light of day again.”

“I have been working in Social Work and am both transgender and lesbian. I have had very few problems but there have been a couple of occasions when I have not been able to continue working with clients due to discrimination.”

“There are some services that I dread going to because the clients whisper behind their hands as soon as I walk into the room. On the whole there have not been problems, but I generally do not disclose me sexual orientation, and have only on a couple of occasions discussed my gender identity.”

“I am fortunate that I do pass well with relation to gender, so it is not obvious that I am trans except sometimes on the telephone. I try not to discuss my personal life, but sometimes have to say that I have a partner, but tend not to use pronouns so that the client does not know that my partner is female.”

“I have worked in several different agencies and job roles - including working in HIV with gay men - and I have never disclosed my sexuality to anyone even though I am a lesbian. I feel that it is not anyone else's business who I am, but I will disclose to colleagues if I feel I can trust them!”

“As social workers we are not supposed to make judgements on service users so why should this be the case in the work place? As long as it's not impeding on our work then I for one do not see why homophobia should go back in to the closest.”

“A Social Workers sexuality is a personal matter not to be displayed,discussed nor discouraged. I believe a Manager’s role is to support social workers and where, when possible allocate cases with consideration of all factors and this should include sexuality.”

“I am openly gay in my work place in a multi-disciplinary team and have never suffered any negative prejudice.”

“However, due to the client that I work with being young offenders I have made my own decision not to disclose. If they guess then that’s an issue for them but I would never disclose it to them, but even then its never been an issue that I have been made aware of. I think this is a personal choice not a professional one.”

“Although your private business is 'your' business and I do not agree with disclosing because of the sake of it (specially in care situations it is not appropriate for workers to draw personal parallels with service users to 'make them feel better'), for people that are openly gay I feel there are a lot of undisclosed homophobia particularly from service users, parents and professionals.”

“It is the competence in social work that matters and what it stands for. We are all human beings and life is characterised by differences. Homophobics should get over it.”